Legend of Gena An Avatar-World Story
by Gatene
Summary: A story that would represent today's American culture but all in the avatar world. The last avatar had died while in the avatar state, and all hope for the balance of Earth was gone. Now, hundreds of years later, it would seem that there could be another Avatar.
1. Chapter 1: Avatar's End & Gena

Hello everyone. I started writing this story a few days ago, but had the idea for a long while. I never wrote anything on it, because it just didn't feel right. I decided I would only publish a story online when and if the story would basically write itself, and that is exactly what this one did.

I haven't figured out a name for this fic, but hopefully that will change soon, as I am horrible with titles.

So, without further ado:

**Chapter One: Avatar's End & Gena**

His eyes glowed pure white. He created a tsunami. The other man, the very threat of the world's balance, dealt a lethal blow from behind with a mountain of boulders, each double the Avatar's size. The last Avatar died in the avatar state. All hope for the world, lost. Avatar Senka, the waterbender was mourned, and forgotten. The bending populace dwindled. That too, eventually forgotten, chopped up as myth, folklore, and fables.

Governments erected over the now 5 nations. Religions popped up to replace what was truth with pure fiction. Each deity modeled after famous benders of time past, and each scripture giving enough information to pique interest in each follower without gifting the truth. This enticed each follower to have his/her own interpretation, and none right. The governments kept its people naïve and controlled, satiated yet hungry for more; usurping human rights, powers, and creation ability.

Technology became stagnant, and in some ways reversed. Only now does it move at a crawl, compared to before.

This is how the world is now. No knowledge of bending, creation, or an individual's chakras. Houses, televisions, computers, telephone, cellular phones, and satellites are part of today's slow-moving technology. Only 1% of the world's population has riches, only 35% live comfortably, and the other 64%, live frugally. The various complexions of humans are separated into races. The world really is in dire need of another Avatar.

Slaena, a continent to the far west of the clump of old nations, was once uninhabited, but now is home to the religion of the avatar. The followers of this non-conforming religion were eventually excommunicated from the main populace, and over time gained trade permissions. Over time, this too, was forgotten, and the religion was more of an underground secret society. The members were always considered eccentric by the general population, and ignored. The rest of the small continent was eventually filled with the children and grandchildren of the society, and without proof of the existence of bending and the Avatar, the society numbers nearly stopped growing, and the knowledge forgotten.

Few people actually kept to themselves. One girl in particular named, Gena, was such a person, and did not get mixed up in anything, but also was not goal-oriented. She was of pale complexion, short blonde hair, and lanky. When she stood up to her full, 5 foot 11 inch height, she was not at all intimidating, but her demeanor made her appear to not be a pushover. Bright yet dark green eyes always heavily contrasted her skin tone, and always first to capture people's attention. Her beauty was unparallel on the continent. No one could understand why she was a loner, and always treated her as special, because she lived alone at such a young age, with no family to speak of.

Gena could always be found at a pristine oasis at any given time, as she practically lived there. She always felt at home with the pond teeming with aquatic life, the slender waterfall, and the multitude of foliage that enveloped and hid the two. She would often just stare into the pond, oftentimes not seeing anything other than her reflection.

"Another quiet warm day" she spoke aloud since no one could hear her.

The warm day was almost unnatural, as it was always warm in the oasis, like the tall trees, and numerous bushes soaked up any adverse weather. No rain, sleet, snow, hail, nothing came into the oasis that was not organic.

Strange lights that were tiny orbs would float around the oasis. This particular day was no exception.

"I wish I knew what you were little one" She said, again aloud.

The orb would dance, seemingly at the sound of her voice. None of it felt odd to her. She assumed they were nothing but a different type of firefly.

Through the woods, her tan high-top boots carried her, and onto pavement with very little traffic. She still looked both ways, then made her way across the street to the old bazaar, which only held one food stand then.

"Gena, so good to see you. What can I get you today?" As if the tall burly man dressed in normal street clothes, and garnished with a produce-stained plastic apron needed to ask.

"Oh, just the usual, David. Just heading home from the oasis" She replied, with a sing-song voice.

A boy working with David froze and drew a perplexed expression on his face. He said nothing, but intently continued to listen, and slowed his task to do so.

"Remind me again, where this oasis is at. I haven't seen anything in those woods other than trees" David asked in a tone almost mock-sounding.

It was a well known fact that absolutely nothing was in those woods except trees, and various wildlife.

The boy's posture stiffened, and the knife he was holding slammed down onto the cutting board with a clank. Gena noticed this and stared at the boy who seemed to be around the same height as her, his complexion only slightly darker, and figure only slightly muscular as if waiting for him to say something.

David simply cut his eyes towards the boy's direction, and looked back towards Gena.

"Not even an eighth of a mile behind us. You can't miss it. The waterfall feeding the pond of koi fish surrounded by a thicket of trees" she proclaimed.

"Well, I'll keep that in mind next time I fancy a walk in the woods. That is, if you don't mind" The man continued in the same almost mocking tone.

Gena smiled, and shook her head. "No, of course not, it's such a peaceful place, I believe everyone would benefit from it."

"And it's always warm there." She continued, tugging at her navy blue coat.

The boy froze again, but kept working at his normal pace. He knew nothing was in the woods either, but this oasis always sounded odd, yet feasible. He couldn't even rationalize that thought to himself.

"Three of these, a bag of these, and a canister of worms please." Gena said with the same smile on her face grabbing up three apples and a bag of dried pineapple.

She paid David, and thanked them both. She never met the boy, but she was always a polite girl. Three cars pulled up as she left walking along the side of the road leading into town.

"Still going on about the oasis, David?" One of the customers asked after getting out of his car.

"As always. She's odd, but beautiful. So I continue to let her shop here" David replied.

"I think Sare here likes her. He's always tensing up when she comes around." David Continued.

Sare just blushed, and continued to work.

The customers and David chuckled.

Gena was walking with her small bag of groceries, the occasional car whizzing past her. She saw one of the fireflies from the oasis fly in front of her. She held out her hand for it to perch.

"Oh, you followed me this time. I'll take you back tomorrow."

It flew from her hand and landed on her shoulder, and there it stayed until they came to a quite lengthy and old ranch style home. To her, it was enough for just her. She checked the mail, and proceeded inside. The firefly flew ahead of her and went its own way.

"Don't get lost now, I need to find you in the morning before leaving." Gena proclaimed.

The firefly did a little dance, and continued to the left into her room. Gena continued straight on into the kitchen where she put up two of the apples, left out the pineapple, and stored the worms in the fridge. She proceeded to wash the other apple, and sat on her bar stool, and began to eat.

Thoughts of the oasis, and its warmth still puzzled her. Then she thought about the boy, Sare, and decided to take a quick nap in her bed.

The nap was disturbed by a vivid dream of empty space with only an illuminated path visible all around her. She walked and walked with no clue where she was. She knew she was dreaming, but why was she dreaming this?

"Hello?" She shouted.

She thought she might as well say something, hopefully someone would come into the dream and help her out. She then came to a small flight of stairs with a white and a red diamond shape off in the distance on either side of her. They quickly disappeared as soon as she seen them. Then she saw a figure at the top of the stairs. The figure started to turn around, and she woke up.

It was morning. Had she really slept that long? She started to be thankful she was on vacation from her job, as mishaps such as these, could get her into trouble. She got up, and looked around for the firefly. She spotted it on an old green ornate comb she found right outside of the oasis. It looked peaceful, and it looked as though it was breathing. She decided to get ready for the day, and let it sleep. If that was in fact what it was doing.

She was feeling lazy this particular morning, but still found a way to do her normal routine of fixing breakfast, exercise a little, eat the breakfast, and grab a shower. She liked her food a little cold, and always liked to be sweaty before a shower as it made her feel clean afterwards.

She slid a shower door over, and right in front of her face, was a huge red diamond. She yelped, and quickly slid the shower door back. She was panicking a little.

"Alright Gena, it was just a dream. You're just a little sleepy." She tried to talk herself down.

"But wait, I don't feel sleepy at all. Is that dream on my mind that bad?"

Talking aloud to herself was something she often did. No doubt from watching a ton of anime as a child. She slowly slid open the door again, and saw her bathroom as normal. She didn't know what to think at this point. Seeing dreams outside of sleep? She's never experienced that before.

The firefly was awake, buzzing around her vanity mirror in her room. She caught her reflection in the mirror, and as if she were talking to another person, continued the conversation to herself.

"Next thing you know, I will be cleaning up sheep shit from having to count them to go to sleep."

The firefly only stopped buzzing around, landed on the comb, and stared at her.

"Sorry little one. I just had a really vivid dream, and can't get it out of my head."

The firefly stayed motionless.

"Ready to go back to the oasis?"

The firefly buzzed around again, as if it could understand Gena, and was happy.

Together they both left the house. It was awfully cold outside, so Gena was suited up for the occasion, but made sure to dress for warm weather for the oasis. Walking up the same low traffic highway for miles gave her time to think to herself.

The red diamond? Why not the white diamond? And what does dreaming of diamonds mean?

She explained the dream to the firefly knowing it couldn't understand, but maybe it could somehow help her makes sense of it all.

They both got to the food stand at the bazaar, where David and Sare were setting everything back up. Sare began picking through the fruit as a freshness check, and David was counting money to load the register up for an accurate profit count at the end of the day. The firefly hid within the long golden hair of an unaware Gena.

Sare caught a glimpse of her. He stopped what he was doing, and just stared for a moment, and finally waved.

"Hey David." She began.

"Hey, yourself Girlie." David greeted back.

"Do you or he know what a dream of diamond shapes mean?" She continued, not knowing Sare's name.

He fumbled a few black plums that landed in the dirt, and David rolled his eyes as Gena helped pick them up from the ground.

"Just tell her you like her already." David said in a boisterous voice.

They both turned beet red at David's blunt comment.

"I…I..I" Sare stuttered.

David bellowed a deep laugh.

"No Gena, I have no idea. Dreaming about diamonds lately?" David asked.

"Some tribes speak of diamond shapes dealing with spirits." Sare cut in, his cheeks still a little burnt.

David looked at Sare quizzically.

"The original people of Slaena grouped themselves as tribes." Sare answered again.

"Oh. Maybe I should go the archives and read up on these diamond shapes then." Gena mentioned.

Gena thanked them, and headed onto the oasis.

Sare watched Gena as she crossed the road, and disappeared into the woods.

"You shouldn't get attached to that type, boy" David offered as irrelevant advice.

"I'm not. The diamonds she mentioned in her dream, the oasis she claims to go to all the time. Just piques my interest is all." Sare defended, as he went back to his freshness count.

Sare took a second to notice that David was just staring at him as if he were a dangerous wasp or a hungry animal come to take some fruit.

"You're not one of them quiet types, those odd-thinkers, are you?" David asked in a condescending tone still just staring at him.

Sare stopped with the freshness check again.

"No sir."

"Good. I don't need no unstable freak, or one of those society nuts working for me. The real world is the real world. It's hectic, unpredictable, and the only truth is hustling and having dollar signs in your eyes if you want to make anything of yourself." David continued in a self righteous rant.

Sare finished his freshness check without any more words with David other than business talk. He knew what the diamonds meant, at least from pictures, but why would a simple girl of no real appeal be dreaming of them? Why would she also be talking about an oasis that couldn't possibly exist in the mind of a girl like that? He had to know more information, and he knew where to get it.

Sare saw Gena leaving the woods, but didn't stop for anything. This told Sare it was near quitting time for the day. Sare stacked empty crates from all the fruit they sold today onto the back of David's truck. It was a good day, and David was in a particularly good mood. Maybe he wouldn't give him any lip about dropping him off somewhere different today as opposed to his house.

Sare arrived at his destination at a plain field of grass and sand. David took off as if he thought Sare would change his mind. Sare ran a tan finger through his jet black hair. He knew not how he would be greeted here, as he left the society as an impatient runt. He was in the society of the Avatar. He had a hard time grasping waterbending. Even the basics eluded him. He grew impatient, and spouted off something about, "if you cannot bend anything at all. What reason do I have to believe it even exists?" to the leaders of the society. He left, and never returned. His teachings prior to waterbending, however, stuck out as he found out more about Gena.

So tell me what you think. I have already begun chapter two, but I wanted to know people's reaction to the initial chapter. So, comments and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated ~Gatene


	2. Chapter 2: Avatar Society

**Chapter Two: Avatar Society**

Gena was home and alone this time. Nothing followed her home. She was in bed, and almost asleep. WHAM the door to her room swung open, and hit the foot of her bed. A figure, black as a silhouette, hurried into her immaculate room, and seemed to turn to look at her.

"Hurry!" it said something afterwards that was inaudible.

"It might already be too late young…" Again, the voice was very fuzzy, and some words it said couldn't be made out.

"Come on!" It pleaded again.

She nervously got up out of her bed, and headed to the door the figure was dancing hurriedly at. When she got to the exact place it was at, it just disappeared, but the activity behind her door was catastrophic. A field on fire, people on fire panicking and running around, and then the red diamond showed up again, and everything went pitch black.

Gena sat straight up in her bed quickly. Her heart beating so fast as if she were one of the people in her dream. Sweat running down the side of her face, her breathing labored. She was too scared to lay back down. Afraid of having a similar dream, or continuing that one.

She hurriedly turned on every light in the house. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, the kitchen, the living room, the den, and even the outside lights were all on.

It took her a minute to calm her breathing, and set her mind at ease, and yet constantly thinking, wondering, why she was having these dreams.

She had already made a Google search online about dreams and diamond shapes. And found nothing. Every search turned out to be something materialistic. She even searched for people who have had similar dreams. That search took hours. When she couldn't find any kind of results on Google, she would head to Bing, then to alta vista. Then, finally on Lycos, she got a hit. It was a man, who claimed he was hallucinating, and eventually checked into a psychiatric ward. He felt he had a nervous breakdown, and wanted all of it to stop. He had a blog on a very minor-traffic site, "_The Corral Hoster"_. He went on for years about his dreams and hallucinations very sporadically. They matched Gena's dreams and hallucinations.

"Why me?" She began ranting and pacing in her den.

"It's too much of a coincidence." Her tone and thoughts betrayed her blank face.

"There has to be something to this."

She stopped as if realizing something horrible. Her face reflected the fright.

"What if it's the beginning of an epidemic?"

Just then, the dream she had turned into a hallucination. Her livid, empty, soulless den seamlessly became the burning field. She shut her eyes, plugged her ears to muffle the screams. All she could think of was water. Water to put the field out, and save these people. The hallucination ended, and it was her basement that was drenched in water, dripping from the ceiling, running down the walls like a waterfall.

She couldn't explain this phenomenon. Maybe she was still asleep. She pinched herself.

"No of course that wouldn't work."

"Okay, I am not crazy."

She sat up straight in her bed just as before. Same labored breathing, her heart beating just as fast. She waited for a moment in the calm and deafening noiseless room. Just waiting for that figure to run back into the room.

Nothing happened.

She ran to the den, and along the way, turned on every light in the house.

"Déjà vu" she thought to herself.

She turned on the light in the den from a hanging cord in the middle of the room. Nothing was dripping wet. All was as dry as could be.

"What the …"

Sare stood in the middle of large field. It was almost pitch black dark. He kept thinking of what he could possibly say to justify this….this intrusion.

A large-nosed older car pulled up behind him. It was too late. He had no more time to think of anything to say.

The man behind the wheel and Sare only stared at each other. They knew who each other were, but neither wanted to be the first to speak. The man because of the fact Sare ran out on him years ago, and Sare too ashamed to even be there.

"I am sorry" Is all Sare could muster, before walking away in the same direction as the car was pointed. His hands in his produce-pitted stained jeans.

The driver door swung open, revealing a slim and dark complexioned man.

"Sare" The man said bluntly.

Sare turned around to face the man.

"Please get in, and say what you came to say." He said almost begging.

The man loved Sare. He was his first student after all. He had such high hopes for Sare. Bending was a long lost forgotten art. Without knowing who would be a bender of any of the 4 elements, or not knowing if they were a non bender, kept the progression of re realizing bending to a halt. Sare was his first and only hope in a dying secret society.

"I think I have found someone special." Sare started before entering the vehicle.

The man's interest was piqued. No one has exhibited specific gifts in quite some time. The last one to do so was Duncan Miller. He refused to listen to the teachings as do most people, and just commit himself, and eventually died around 23 years ago.

"What makes you think this?" The man asked.

"I know you are going to think I am crazy. I mean I think I am crazy. I'm not even in the society anymore, and I can tell – Or at least, I think I can – when someone shows some kind of power. I mean, come on, Jonathan." Sare proclaimed leaning on the car, staring at Jonathan.

"You are a waterbender, Sare. You always will be. You just need to…"Jonathan started

"No, you think I am. Why? Because I have blue eyes? Let's just stick with talking about Gena." Sare interrupted, now in the car.

"So, her name is Gena?"

"Yes. She's a loner. She keeps raving about this oasis she found in the woods directly across from David's food stand. Then she comes and asks David and me about diamonds. Well, having dreams about diamond shapes." At this time, Sare tries to avoid eye contact with Jonathan, as they head away from the field.

"Raava and Vaatu" Jonathan whispered audibly.

"Yeah" Is all Sare could mutter.

They kept driving, and eventually came to a nice housing development, and stopped at a lovely pale brick home. Sare knew it to be Jonathan's house. They went into the house, and the foyer with the gigantic chandelier greeted him. Nostalgia set in, as well as regret, and more grief.

"Do you even believe in Bending?" Jonathan asked, laying his keys on a small stand next to the door out of habit.

Sare had to think for a moment. Something he had never seen, and never heard of before meeting Jonathan or any of the other society members.

"Do you believe in the stories of the Avatar?" Jonathan asked, not waiting on the response.

"No on both counts." Sare admitted, keeping his head down, as if he knew Jonathan would be disappointed.

"I mean, I think I believe something now. I mean, Gena has some kind of power." Sare looked up a little hopeful, and said to Jonathan.

They were still standing in the foyer, but Jonathan then retreated to the kitchen. Jonathan knew why Sare left, and it just wasn't because he couldn't bend, or had no belief in the teachings. Jonathan knew Sare believed, but over time, he stopped due to hatred.

"You used to believe. You were keen on sharing the knowledge with the world when you were with the society."

"The society wouldn't. So I thought to myself, why should something so powerful be kept secret, and why would this society want it to be kept secret."

"And, what did I say to you?"

Jonathan waited a moment while Sare racked his brain for the answer.

"Not everyone can or will accept the truth. The ones that would, would be outcasts just like us. So we give everyone a chance to hear the truth in secret. Those who have the curiosity of a child, do come with us. Some stay, but some go, and some get mad, and take revenge in one way or another. It truly is a gamble with all the nations."

By this time, Jonathan was on his telephone, asking various people to come over to his house for some important news. Sare just stayed still, lost in his in thoughts, on a bar stool, elbows on the accompanying table, and head in his hands. Jonathan hung up the phone as he finished his last call.

"I'm sorry, Jonathan, I do not remember that."

Gena was standing, completely still, staring at a wall in her den, perplexed at how the water just vanished. She had forgotten it was only a dream; probably because it felt so real. No water stains from damage, no wet floor, nothing. Everything was completely dry.

She slowly turned around, and moved towards the door; turning off the light in the process.

She felt like she was escaping reality somehow. Like this was some kind of calling. She turned off the rest of the lights while heading to her room. Eventually laying down once again, and closing her eyes.

She was back in the field. This time it was drenched, and no bodies in sight. She looked around, and eventually a bright white light engulfed everything she could see. She felt warmth and love enveloping her, just like in the oasis. The blue diamond then showed up. This time, there was a dot in the center like some kind of eye.

"Gena" The diamond spoke.

"My name is Raava. It's so nice to meet and talk with you." It continued.

After introducing itself, the feminine-sounding voice took shape. Somewhat like an arrow, and somewhat like a squid. They were back in the field. The light that was Raava was still bright, but the arrow-shaped form now had tentacle-looking strands of the same light forming from its head, and what Gena would perceive as an eye, now had more decorations surrounding it.

"I have no doubt you have had a rough few days."

"Yeah, the horrid dreams and even more horrid hallucinations does tend to make one have a rough day." Gena rebutted, almost in an angry and violent tone.

"I apologize for such. I was only trying to get in contact with you, and so was Vaatu."

"Vaatu?" Gena asked quizzically.

"Vaatu is the same shape as me, but represents chaos and destruction; whereas I represent light, peace, and balance."

Gena said nothing, and just listened intently, hoping to solve these problematic dreams and hallucinations.

"Centuries ago, people were able to use the elements at will, for any purpose. Some good and some bad."

"Wait. Use the elements?"

"Yes, the use of the elements. When they manipulated the elements, that person was considered a bender."

Another light source formed next to Raava, and demonstrated firebending, airbending, waterbending, and finally, earthbending. Gena focused intently on the figure, trying to discern if that figure was the same figure she had dreams about. Because of the figure moving effortlessly and smoothly, it was almost hypnotic, and difficult to follow, like some sort of martial arts.

"Each bender would only be able to manipulate one element. That is, except for the Avatar, a bender that could manipulate each of the four elements, either separate or in tandem."

The other light figure demonstrated this, by being encased by water, and flying through hoops made of earth and set ablaze.

Gena woke up.

"This is such bull crap. Why am I entertaining these dreams? The Avatar? All of that nonsense that those wackos believe and preach."

Gena got out of bed, got dressed, and stormed out of her home, to walk along the deserted highway, heading to the oasis in the dark. Not sure if she would actually walk through the woods at night, but was still heading in that direction.

The house welcomed 3 more members of the Avatar society. Sare, Jonathan, and three others, sat in Jonathan's living room. They had talked about the reasons Sare thought he left, why he really left, discussed him coming back, and now continuing his and Jonathan's previous discussion.

"Governments and religions have lied to us all. Kept us naïve, and fed us half truths so we would believe and accept it all as the whole truth. Religions turned all famous benders into deities. That's why there are so many. Zeus? He was actually a firebender who excelled in lightning. Hermes was an airbender. I could go all night naming them all. History forgot about all this, and the new leaders of the world stepped up, and removed it all from books, which led to future generations not believing or forgetting. We spread the knowledge as much as we could in the past, but people could not accept it, since we are unable to bend ourselves, we couldn't prove it." The woman in the group taught.

"Okay, look, this is a lot to take in at a moment's notice. I want to rejoin the society, and I have. I believe that Gena is a very powerful bender." Sare replied.

"From what you tell us about these diamond shapes. It sounds like she is the new Avatar." One of the new men butted in.

They all sat in a circle. Jonathan at the head, the woman to his right, another man to his left, the other man at the bottom of the circle, and Sare in the middle.

"We must meet this Gena to find out. There are ways to test her." The woman spoke again.

"This should be good. Hi Gena. My friends and I believe you are the new Avatar. Come and get tested." Sare spoke heavily with disdain.

The other man finally spoke up, "You must use finesse. She already asked you about the diamonds in her dreams. Take it further. Tell her about the spirits, Raava and Vaatu. If we are correct in assuming, she will already have made some kind of contact. She may even be contemplating getting help from a psych ward like the avatar before her. We need to intercept, and try to explain things before that happens again."

Sare and Jonathan left the other three society members at Jonathan's home, to take Sare home.

"I do not know how I am going to do this Jonathan. I mean, I have trouble believing all of this. How am I going to convince her of it all?" Sare questioned, staring out the window.

Jonathan started to talk some more to Sare, but Sare was focused on a person he sees walking the side of the road.

"Wait, wait, slow down next to this person." Sare demanded.

"Gena, it's me, Sare, from the food stand."

"Uhm, okay, Sare from the food stand" Gena had no idea how to reply to any of this. She just went through hell and back with the nightmares, entertaining foolish ideas of bending and Avatars, to this boy, who she never talked to before just showing up in the middle of the night.

Sare got out of the car, and Gena immediately got on the defensive by grabbing her can of mace from a jacket pocket.

"Sorry, sorry, I am not trying to scare you."

"You're not scaring me, just putting me in a predicament I do not wish to be in."

"I was thinking about you earlier, and I was with my friend here, and I told him about your dreams of the diamonds."

She lowered her guard a little. Odd, she thought. She just had the nightmare, the dream, and now he wants to talk about this? Maybe he'll have a better explanation.

"Well, other than the actual rock, diamonds have been known to represent spirits, named Raava and Vaatu."

Gena froze. Could there be any truth to all of this craziness? Why does this boy's grown friend in the car know about all of this? These and more questions popped up in Gena's head simultaneously.

Author's Note: Wow, I just wrote this chapter in a few hours. Up until the last 2 sections of this chapter, it was practically still writing itself. I will start on Chapter 3 tomorrow, but I will not post right away, until I get some sort of feedback. Besides, I want to toy around with making Duncan's blog on my site. Duncan was the guy that was the last Avatar, but never embraced it, and committed himself, and died in a hospital, and then Gena was born. I also want to read more fanfics, to see how others have described bending in their stories. As always, please leave comments and/or constructive criticism. I'm not a perfect writer, but I do want to make this fic the best I can make it.


	3. Chapter 3: Bitter Learning

**Chapter 3: Bitter Learning**

Gena, Sare, and Jonathan stood outside for what felt like several minutes. Gena was blankly staring at the asphalt beneath her. She knew this wasn't something she could run away from or something read in a book she could just throw from sight. Sare mentioned those names that she dreamt she heard. This was real.

"So this is real?" Gena asked as she looked up for the first time in minutes.

"What do you mean?" Sare questioned.

"I think she has had dreams or visions." Jonathan butted in.

"Visions" She scoffed under her breath.

Gena's mouth was going dry, and just barely keeping her composure, she continued, "Okay, I had a dream. There was this pure light figure that came to me, and introduced herself as Raava, and told me about this Vaatu you mentioned. Then the field was on fire, water everywhere, and you came busting in my room." She lost it. Ashamed, she covered her eyes to cry into.

It was clear now that Sare was the figure she saw in the two dreams she had, but focusing on this would just raise more questions.

Sare moved in towards Gena.

"I know this must be so tough for you. I mean the Avatar society tried telling me I was a waterbender…"

"Bending? That figure mentioned that too. I don't want any of this. Why am I having these dreams and these…these freakish hallucinations?" She shouted.

"According to our beliefs…" Jonathan started.

"Here we go, this will make it all better." Gena cut in.

Jonathan exhaled audibly, slowly blinking his eyes.

"According to our beliefs, Raava and Vaatu are the spirits of, basically, good and evil. Raava had merged with a human at one point, and that human could bend any of the four elements. This was the beginning of the Avatar. At the end of one Avatar's life, Raava would go into the next incarnation's body, and he or she would be the next avatar, and we believe you are the new Avatar because of you having dreams of Raava."

"Why have I never heard of an Avatar if I am the current one?"

Jonathan had been moved the car to the side of the road, and they all were sitting on the asphalt discussing all of the history of the Avatar, why she was the next, and why no one knows anything about bending or the Avatar.

It was so much for Gena to take in. A few days ago, she just left on vacation from her job, going to the oasis every day, having a peaceful time. Now this has happened.

Jonathan and Sare had left in the car, and Gena went on to the oasis as it was light out per her own request. She had to figure this all out, straighten it inside her head.

"See? This place exists." Gena said to herself from Jonathan's spiel of saying the oasis only existed for her, and no one else could see it.

Gena took off her clothes down to her panties and undershirt, and climbed in under the waterfall and waded to keep herself afloat, as it was really deep right there.

"See? You fireflies exist, fluttering around me. You koi fish exist, swimming…"

Gena ranted on until she tried to touch a koi fish, and her hands went straight through. She sighed deeply, and started to float on her back. The water covering her ears, so she could hear nothing but her own thoughts, and the waterfall.

"So nice, it's almost rhythmic" She proclaimed.

She floated just like that, and finally closed her eyes to the steady waterfall sounds.

"Gena" A voice seemed to speak sharply.

Gena quickly opened her eyes and gasped for breath as she was sucked down far beneath the brook.

"I can't imagine what Gena is going through. Should she even be left alone right now?" Sare started.

"Right now, we need to worry about you. The Avatar meets companions early before starting a journey. We believe you to be a companion of Gena's." The female society leader spoke with continued authority.

Sare could never take any of them serious. Their dark red robes and mismatched waist ties always made them appear to be fake, like something out of a cartoon. Not to mention, they were old, and could not bend. They were sitting back at Jonathan's house in the same circle as before, with Sare in the middle.

"Me? We barely know each other, and I can't even bend." Sare complained.

"We will teach you some waterbending. The Avatar will not leave for some time. She is taking this all very hard. You two will learn bending together, and after she masters airbending, you should be able to teach her waterbending." One of the three male leaders spoke.

"How will she learn the other elements?" Sare questioned.

"She will have to enter the spirit world at the South Pole, and learn from the spirits." Jonathan replied.

"Okay, I will train with you all on waterbending, but I do have another question for you. If the Avatar dies in the Avatar state Ravva also dies, and cannot exit the Avatar's body. How come Gena exists as the Avatar at all?"

"Raava regenerates. Light and Darkness can never be destroyed completely. Since it has not been 10,000 years since Vaatu was taken out by a previous Avatar, he could not take Raava's place. Raava finally got the strength to return to the Avatar, but they can only communicate, they have to be bonded by Harmonic Convergence again for her to be the next avatar. Like Raava is regenerating, so is Vaatu, but his presence is miniscule for right now." The female leader explained.

Sare didn't fully understand, but he was in no mood to ask any more questions. He had enough of learning for this day.

"Alright onto waterbending!" One of the other male leaders exclaimed.

"What? I have to soak all of this in!" Sare also exclaimed.

Gena awoke in a beautiful land. Everywhere around her the plant life was huge, more green than she ever thought possible, and the prairie in front of her eyes was lush and vibrant.

"Where am I?" Gena asked aloud.

"You are in the spirit world."

Gena jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. She turned and noticed the figure as Raava.

"What? What is that? I was just at the oasis."

"The oasis you refer to is a highly spiritual place that only you could experience. It is a place between the physical world and this one. Your body is back on Earth in the pond." Raava explained, showing Gena her own body as a floating picture.

Gena's head was perched on the grass outlining the pond where the waterfall was. A feeling of relief that she wouldn't drown swept over her.

"How did I get here?"

"When you floated in the waters, and paid attention to only the sound of the water around you, your mind was at ease, and since you are the Avatar, your spiritual energy guided you here."

"More like THREW me in here." Gena proclaimed.

"I felt a sudden falling sensation just before losing consciousness and then woke up here." Gena continued.

"Your sensation of entering this world will almost always be different."

Gena felt more calm. The feeling of safety and love being around a towering Raava made her more relaxed. Behind Raava, the vegetation was thick and still green and healthy. Behind Gena, the prairie looked so inviting, and looked to go on forever. She had never seen plant life like this before. Even outside the city. The smog and overall air condition was too poor to make plant life this brilliant.

Gena began to walk, taking in all of the sights as Raava explained everything she could to Gena. Gena was a little unnerved that Raava's being showed no emotion, regardless of how her voice sounded. Various spirits flowed around the two of them, seemingly staring at the pair, thinking it odd that they were not one being.

"Your Avatar training will begin soon. To begin you will go to the South Pole, and physically enter the spirit world, because now, you could not bend even if you knew how. Once inside, you will go here."

It was like Raava was controlling everything there. As her last spiel ended, mountains appeared on either side of them, and directly in front, a large dingy and golden palace appeared, and was upside down.

"What's this place?" Gena asked curiously.

"This is known as Wong Shi Tong's library."

Gena didn't hate to read, but haven't set foot in a library before.

"Here, you will learn about your past lives, learning the concept of bending, and many other things as time progresses. You can enter this place whether you are here physically or spiritually. When you are here spiritually, you only need to think of the place you want to be, and you will be there, but when you are here physically, you need to know where you are going. When you enter here physically though, I will be with you, and will help guide you."

Gena was checking out the massive library. She had never seen any structure upside down. It was a wonder.

"This is where we part ways, as it is beginning to be dark out on Earth. When you enter the spirit world physically, we will bond again."

"Wait, don't I get a say in this?" Gena exclaimed a little apprehensively.

"Yes, you do. The world needs its Avatar again as it has gone far too long without one. I believe you will make the right choice, Gena. Plus, you will need Sare's help learning waterbending. He is learning now as we speak."

"I can't just learn from a spirit like I will with fire, air, and earthbending?"

Gena asked because she didn't know anything about Sare, and wasn't sure spending that kind of time with him was so good.

"I know what you are thinking, but as the Avatar, you will be consorting with all kinds of humans. You will be everyone's Avatar. Besides, I now know your personality, and you will need extra help with waterbending."

"I will belong to the world? Wait, I just caught on to what you said earlier. What do you mean by we will be bonded again once I come here physically? How?" Gena said thoughtfully, but still apprehensive as if nothing sounded like anything she wanted to do.

"Breathe."

"Breathe? To bend, all I do is breathe?" Sare retorted

"Breathe, close your eyes, focus on this water." The female leader explained.

Sare and the female leader of the Avatar society stood in an empty room, with a large wooden bucket of water. The air was stale, lights were dim, and nothing seemed right to Sare about the whole situation.

"You have lived most of your life thinking there was nothing extraordinary we as people could accomplish. That things like bending were made up fantasies or witchcraft. That is what they want you to believe. Open your mind and start thinking that anything is possible with knowledge. Time travel, flying, telekinesis, bending, and much more are only things we do not know how to do, yet."

That kind of made sense to Sare. He couldn't help but wonder, however, how Gena was faring. She had to take the brunt of all this change. Could she do it? Would she even want to do it? He hated not knowing how she was, how she was feeling. He had to force all of that from his mind to continue on.

"Every person, every animal, everything vibrates at some speed, as a whole, and individual cells. Focusing on the vibration is to manipulate the item as a whole."

"How would I even tune in to any vibration to manipulate something?"

"Think of each vibration as a color. Extend your hand, and touch that color with a finger."

He's tried these exercises over and over again from the last time he was a part of the society. He could never grasp how to control the vibrations, manipulate the very cells of an object.

"The water is filled with living organisms. Each organism is made up of cells. Even the water itself has cells. Your chi is what latches onto the vibrating cells and controls them. Imagine your chi taking shape of the perfect tool needed to do exactly what you intend on doing with the element."

They were still standing. Sare over the bucket of water, and the female instructor off to the side.

"If you and the other leaders know this, how come you all cannot do it, and since you never answered me before, how do you know I am a waterbender?" Sare said, still not convinced while turning toward her.

"Your eyes. They are blue, and deep. Not just any blue either. Cerulean blue, just like the oceans, and deep like them." She explained.

"The other question?"

"We will get to that, you must do some waterbending first."

"I can't, I do not even know if any of this is real. Anyone can make up history and tell a story." Sare proclaimed.

The leader began to look angry, and with fluid motions, she stomped the ground, and pushed with all of her might against the air with both fists. Simultaneously, a slab of the Earth beneath them was dug from the ground, and was sent flying, crashing against the wall nearest Sare, crumbling, and then molded back into the ground.

His eyes widened. So many thoughts of being impressed, feeling bad for leaving the first time and continuing not to believe, and thoughts of betrayal entered his mind. He had no idea what to voice. He felt his body go limp, and meet the floor, with his head pointed to the ground. The leader walked over to him. The sound of her steps echoed through Sare's head.

"Is that proof enough? Can you bend now?"

He had absolutely no idea what to say. He was stunned, all he could do was shake his head in compliance.

"You know? The way you are feeling now, Sare, was the way you were supposed to be feeling the first time you were successful."

"Can you all do that?" He asked, still on the ground, staring at it. Still confused about which emotion he wanted to embrace.

"Just Jonathan and I, and he is an airbender. The other two are nonbenders, but know about our bending abilities." Her green eyes sparkled a little from the flicker of the flames on the torches against the wall. They matched her flowing gray hair, but definitely clashed with her red robe. That did explain why her waist tie was green though.

"Can I only waterbend?" He asked, finally looking over at her.

"I do not know, the idea has never been tested. Some of us believed the first element you bent, was the one you were stuck with." Her thoughtful expression led Sare to believe she was actually only human as he was, and with feelings, not just an emotionless robot with different ideas and a controlling demeanor.

Sare stood up, looked at the bucket of water, closed his eyes, picturing a large scoop going into the bucket, and grabbing water. His brain was still teeming with ideas. He threw his hands up.

"I can't do it. My mind is far from clear."

SPLASH! The ball of water went crashing to the ground.

"Looks like your feelings are in the right place though." She retorted, smugly.

The same feeling from seeing her bend, along with satisfaction, and more amazement filled his body, and so did goose bumps.

Gena awoke in the oasis. Sunlight dim, and nighttime nearing.

She had just received a lot more information before waking. The world was a much different place since the time of the last realized Avatar. Technology was booming, the Earth was cleaner, the wild animals were multiple species with the same bodies, and the spirits and humans communed on a daily basis.

This was so much to take in. Why so many things? What's the rush? Why can't I just learn more as I go? These questions and more filled her mind.

She needed to let loose, forget about everything. The very thing she did best before discovering the oasis.

Author's Note: Okay, I was half asleep writing most of this chapter. I feel that the story is somewhat fast paced. Like I had said in a previous chapter, the story is pretty much writing itself. I may get ideas here and there, but they pretty much come to me while I am writing, and most if not all is coming to me in the middle of the night lol. So, I only have one review, and it is actually a question. People are reading, but not reviewing…is the story that bad? Please let me know.


	4. Chapter 4: Angles of Life

**Chapter 4: Angles of Life**

Sare's eyes were still the size of tennis balls. He couldn't believe it. Not only did he realize he was wrong all along, but he did it himself. Finally, all the confused feelings turned into joy.

"Yes!" He shouted, and punched the air.

Even the female leader drew a smile on her face.

"You know? All these years, and I never knew your name." He turned to her and said.

"Crytia." She said plainly.

Sare began to run up to Crytia, and proclaimed, "Thank you Cry…"

"Stop!" She interruptedly shouted.

"You may call me, Sifu Crytia, and you bow to show respect, like this." She motioned by putting her right fist into her left open and straightened palm, and bending at the waist.

"Seafood? What? Is Crytia a seafaring name?" Sare asked completely bewildered.

Crytia couldn't help but to laugh after blinking a few times trying to understand his point of view.

"No. See Foo Crytia" She chuckled again.

"I have got to remember that one. Seafood! Ha!" Crytia said, again with another haughty laugh.

Crytia cleared her throat as she noticed time was getting away from them, and began to act serious again.

"Now that you have successfully waterbent. I need you to continue practicing. Try to learn new moves. I will teach you more as I can, but a large part of your training will be with yourself, and the rest can come from the spirit world with Gena.

Loud music filled the air. Not just any type of music. Loud, boisterous, and drum-laden music. Many people dressed in what was fashion with hormones flying all over the place along with drugs.

Gena sat at the bar, watching the bartender continue to serve drinks nonstop. She was so attracted to him and so wasted, but that didn't matter, they were soul mates. The music was lifting her mood, and the alcohol was intensifying the affect, and her busy feet showed that on the bottom rung of the bar stool.

This was all weeks later since she and Raava talked, and since Sare learned waterbending, which she did not know, because her nights after work, always led her here. She didn't want anything to change in her life. She loved this life, and for as long as she could remember, that is the life she always had. Change was for people who didn't like their life, so changing never entered her mind.

"Hey, what about tonight? Wanna go home with me?" She rounded the courage to say to the man she found undeniably sexy. Broad shoulders, thick chest, gorgeous smile, and charismatic as hell.

"You mean drive you home, tuck you in, and leave without anything? Come on now, what do you think I would get out of that?" He snappily replied.

Gena dismissed him with a wave of her pale hand, turned around in the stool, and got up to walk to the dance floor. She started to dance solo, and in her head she was the best dancer there. Which would explain why she was alone that night.

Another song started to play, then another, then a slow song, and the club was closing. The lights were on, people were exiting, and she was watching it all, sipping on a drink she didn't even know if it was hers.

"Come on lady, I'll take you home." The bartender said with a tinge of pity.

"Lady? The name's Gena." She retorted with a drunken and very scrunched up face.

She got up off her seat, and headed in his direction, but not very stable.

She lifted her hand and poked him in his chest a few times, "You know? One day, I will have you. Oh yes, and I will rock your world."

The smell of alcohol with each breath was unbearable. Gena noticed this reaction, laughed, and headed to the bathroom.

The man waited outside as she finally came out, and they were leaving together. The man stopped at the front counter, and told the lady inside, "I'm gone for the night Maxine, the till's in the usual spot."

"Till? Alright, neither of you move! Take me to the money now!" an unknown armed masked man shouted.

It took Gena a minute to accept the situation, but the bartender was heading back towards the bar. Gena understood now, that something was very wrong.

A surge of anger mixed with hatred swelled up inside of her, and she fell as dead weight to the floor. Before she lost consciousness, she remembered screaming, and the cute bartender pulling some gnarly moves, and the masked man pinned up against a wall.

It was the next morning. Gena shot up in her bed, looked around.

"What the? How did I get home? Do I remember a robbery?"

She always woke up from a drunken night completely refreshed, with no hangover whatsoever. It was almost as if she didn't drink at all, except that energy spike.

"Yes, there was a robbery, and I took you home after the cops left."

"Whoa!" Gena shouted as she spun around to see who the voice belonged to.

"You're the bartender."

"Well observed, I'm Brak." Brak announced with a patronizing hint.

"What happened? All I remember is falling, some screams, you pulling some great moves, and then the masked man was out for the count." Gena confessed.

They were in the middle of the kitchen now, and Brak's eyes had widened.

"Me pulling some great moves? That was you, and that is why I am still here. Oh, and you didn't fall"

"Me?" She really didn't know what was going on.

"Yeah…wait…you really don't know?" Brak hesitated.

"I am guessing not." Brak finished.

"Well, no one saw you except me. The masked man was too busy watching me to make sure I wouldn't pull anything."

Gena began to look at him a little more intently. With the exception of maybe cowardice, there is nothing she could do that she would care anyone noticing.

Brak must have been really impressed, because his hands began to tell the story too. Almost like flailing around. She could tell he was excited.

"Your eyes began to glow. Then you jumped up into the air, and kicked with both feet, and the thief went plowing into the wall. BAM! It was so cool!"

Gena jumped a little at his over enthusiastic bam.

"And then I pinned him against the wall, and the ladies behind the desk were already on both the phones in the office with the police."

"Raava" was all Gena could muster in whispering.

"What?" Brak asked, straining to hear what she was saying.

Gena looked up, and into his eyes. "Nothing. There must have been another explanation for the whole thing. I can't bend, and I am definitely not the Avatar!"

Gena noticed what she had just said, and it was her turn for her eyes to get wide.

"Bend? You weren't holding anything to bend. Oh that reminds me, here's your bank card. I refunded your tab after all that went down." Brak said, handing her the card, and trying not to think about the Avatar thing she just said. He, more than most, hated the avatar society. He couldn't stand for weirdness that was just controlling people.

"Thanks." Gena said still wearing her worried expression.

"Well, I am sure there is just a simple explanation, but it certainly looked like you did something. I still got your tab though. I better go."

Brak was leaving, passing her to go to the front door. Gena grabbed his arm.

"Wait, I can't let you leave like that."

"Avatar stuff. I bet that whole incident last night just feeds your ego. I thought maybe you threw something that I didn't see that incapacitated him, and your eyes were rolling back in your head with a trick of the light that made them appear to glow before you passed out."

"I'm sure that's all it was too Brak."

"No, you said something about the Avatar. No matter what happened, you will always be convinced that it was some kind of otherworldly mystical shit. I know the kind of person you are now. Don't bother trying to get to know me anymore. If ever there was a chance for us to be friends, it's blown now."

Brak's parents were heavy into the Avatar society. Even without any proof of any of it, they still blindly followed. Then their car crash made him realize that you can't count on anything that requires faith, only what you can see. If only he had convinced them, they wouldn't have been heading to that brainwashing meeting that night.

He left a standing Gena with the same worried expression on her face standing there in the foyer. Watching him climb into his fire pewter-gray sports car, and leave.

The same number of weeks had passed for Sare now, and his waterbending sessions had gotten longer, more intense, and overwhelming. Sare had it in him though. This is what he was born for. Waterbending, wow.

Clay pigeon after clay pigeon flew towards him, and he imagined he had eight arms like an octopus, and smashed them into fine debris. Of course, the water did it, but he was still punching the air, like he was physically instructing the tendrils of water.

BAM!

"Wake up! This fruit ain't gonna check itself for ripeness and display itself all purty like. Quit daydreaming about that girl and do it." David said rather impatiently with his voice a few decibels higher than normal.

It scared him back to reality, but that was a great training session. He couldn't wait until his next one. He maintained the smile on his face as he checked and displayed the fruit. He had caught himself a few times with his mind wandering back to his and Crytia's sessions. If he didn't know any better, he could swear he was going to fall in love with her. He laughed the thought out of his head.

"Come, come, look around. We're the only stand within several miles that has fruit this tasty." David tried to drum up business.

The fit man with obvious sweat stains, reeking of alcohol from the previous night, waved David off.

"Stupid Avatar bull shit." Brak muttered under his breath while looking around for what to get.

Sare's eyes widened, and he kept trying to listen while pretending to work.

"I mean, come on that shit doesn't exist. Why would anyone like her believe in all that?" Brak said, very noticeable this time.

Brak noticed Sare's expression of uneasiness and just apologized. He bought a few apples and a bag of dried pineapple.

"Gena" Sare said, thinking under his breath.

"Yes, that's her name. You know that quack too?"

Sare tried not to look offended. "Not about the Avatar stuff, but that's what she always buys and a bucket of worms" He declared holding up a canister, that was undoubtedly worms.

"Oh, I'll just take this pear then." Brak conceded as he put the stuff back, and grabbed an ordinary apple-shaped pear, and paid David.

David smiled, and said, "Have a good day, remember us!" His voice raising as Brak once again waved David off and kept walking to his car.

David walked over to Sare with a look of anger on his face, and smacked Sare in the back of the head, apparently really hard from the sound of it.

"Ouch!" Sare reacted in tandem with David yelling, "What the hell? He was buying 4 things, and left with one after you mentioned your girlfriend. Stick to work, leave your fantasies at the house.

David murmured some other things mixed with swear words as he walked off.

Now, Gena was all Sare could think about. Who was that brooding guy that just drove off, smelling of alcohol, and how does he know Gena? Around that time, he noticed a figure walking towards them on the opposite side of the road.

"David, I'm taking my break now."

David just kept muttering, and waved Sare off.

It was Gena. Finally, after weeks of not knowing anything, he sees her. Of course, he was only thinking of her around 25% of the time because he was on cloud nine learning to waterbend. Sare ran up to Gena.

"Gena, wow, it's great to see you. How's everything? All the Raava and Avatar stuff?" Sare asking almost as quickly as he ran to her.

Gena simply turned her head the other way, and Sare ignored the gesture at first, thinking she was just letting him finish, and looking into the woods.

"Crytia's amazing. And Oh my god, I waterbent, and I keep training every day."

"Who the hell is Crytia? And I am not an Avatar. I do not care what some fancy vision tells me. I love my life, and nothing is going to stop me from being me!" She declared, almost as loud as David and Brak.

Gena didn't even care that he said he had successfully waterbent, or that she bent…something last night. Reality was as she always knew it, she wasn't going to crazy like the last guy. She was going to simply ignore it, and she dared Raava or Vaatu to keep antagonizing her.

She left a standing Sare at the entrance towards the oasis.

"Women, huh? You spend all your time thinking of new ways to dote, and they just yell at you as if you do nothing. Just do your work, and no more breaks today." David jeered as he wiped his produce-laden hands on his filthy plastic apron.

Author's Note: Wow, this chapter just flew by. I had no idea what to write about. I started with Sare being happier than hell, and ended with him being so depressed. I kind of like how David is developing. He's a slow starting character, but he's getting there. He doesn't emulate me in any respect, but my name is David. When I was typing out names to see how they looked, I simply typed my own, and stuck with it. Oh, and for future reference. Gena is pronounced, Jenna. David is David of course. Sare is Sah'Ray. Crytia is Cree shuh. Jonathan is Jonathan, and Brak is Brock. Maybe the next chapter will go as amazingly as this one. Let me know how you all like it.


	5. Chapter 5: Avatar Gena

**Chapter 5: Avatar Gena**

"Not bad today, Sare." David started to praise Sare.

Sare had already loaded the empty and stained produce boxes into the back of David's truck, took the fruit down that was left and put them into other boxes, and gathered the signs of advertising from the highway. David was in a good mood this evening. This never happened, and David never praised him for doing anything right. Was it because David was happy because he was having such a rough day? Who knows, David was always a jerk.

David started to count out money.

"Here you go. There's a little extra in there for you."

"Thanks, David."

"So, you ready to ride?"

That also never happened, David always just ordered him around. What was going on here? I guess it didn't really matter. He had practicing to do to with Crytia. Then he saw Gena leave the woods. He didn't follow his first instinct, which told him to run to her. Instead, he only watched her, and waited for her to be out of sight. Both him and David were at his truck, securing the boxes, and preparing to leave for the day.

"Actually, I'm going to walk from here, I'm going to check out this oasis that Gena always talks about."

David laughed. "You're wasting your time kid. The place she talks about never gets above or below room temperature, and is completely hidden from sight. She's loony, I tell ya. If she weren't so hot…"

"I know, I know, you wouldn't serve her at all. You only say it every time she buys something and leaves" Sare interrupted.

"Well, take the advice, and let me take you home."

"No thanks, I still want to look."

"Oh okay then, I'll go with you." David agreed and turned his truck off.

Sare didn't know what to think. He just stood there, stunned, and then a moment later spoke.

"Uhm, okay."

They headed across the street, and into the woods. All the sounds of leaves mashing, twigs breaking, and rocks crunching were the only things they heard.

"Uhm, hey, David. Is everything alright today? Something happen that was good you haven't said anything about?" Sare took the opportunity to ask.

"No. Should there be? I just wanted to tag along to see your disappointed face when we find nothing. Maybe we'll run across some of her belongings out here, so you can see that she's crazy too."

Sare just ignored David's comment. Sare knew they were deep into the woods when he could no longer see the highway when he turned around.

"You don't have us lost do you?" David asked.

"Nah, my compass is still pointing west, so we're good." Sare remarked by looking at the brass compass he always kept with him. He loved just going into and pretending to get lost in the woods. He wanted some place to just be alone.

They had stopped to urinate, and continued on. That's when Sare saw something.

"You know, I am always hard on you, because I want to make money, and teach you at the same time." David started.

Sare heard him, but decided to stare from different angles at the shimmer, some sort of break in the air. A spider web? Nah, it was too thick and wide to be a spider web.

"Then you met Gena, the Avatar. I knew then, I had to try and separate you two, but she was doing a bang up job all by herself. I didn't have to intervene."

"Uhu" Sare replied, not really paying any attention, and only grasping every other word.

"But now you want to find the oasis? I can't let you."

Sare had decided to be brave, and stick one of his hands into the shimmer, and to his astonishment, it disappeared.

"Wow." Sare exclaimed.

"Sorry Sare, if only you had remained ignorant."

There was a rumble, and Sare had a falling sensation after his hand suddenly reappeared. He fell a good 200 feet, and landed on his butt. He felt an excruciating pain, leapt to his feet, and proceeded to rub his backside. He turned around to find David staring down at him.

"Sare, you found the Oasis, but now, I cannot let you exist."

At that moment, David's hands were outstretched, and he was slowly closing them in. All Sare could hear and feel was the Earth shaking, and he see the Earth closing in on him.

"David, what? Come on, help me!" Sare cried out.

David was slow at first, trying to maybe figure out a reason to keep Sare alive, but then realized he had to end it quick; and with a clap, the Earth was just as smooth and seamless before he opened the chasm.

"Sorry kid." David said, then walked away in the direction of his truck with a tear in his eye.

Gena was back at home. She stopped in the foyer, and relived the heated argument she and Brak had several hours ago.

Gena shook her head, and headed into her room. She saw her clothes hamper, and knew she had to do laundry, but the den was the last place she wanted to be. Anything to remind her of that Avatar craziness right now was not on her to do list.

Her visit to the oasis today was just bland, uneventful, and really didn't feel like it used to. She was contemplating on not going back, almost everything reminded her of the Avatar mess.

What did she do that night when she was with Brak? He didn't see it, maybe it was airbending? Wait, Brak's back was turned, so he wouldn't be able to see anyway.

She violently shook and hit her head. This was exactly what she did not want to think about.

"I can't wait for work! Then I won't have time to think about all this!" She shouted as if her words were somehow going straight to Raava.

She couldn't believe she just said that. Work was always a distraction. Even when all she would do is go to a bar, or sit at home…it was better than going to work. It was Saturday night, what did she always do on Saturday night? The same as Friday night, go to the club.

Wait, Brak was going to be there. So many downers lately. Why can't things just make sense, and go back to normal?

"You had 21 years of normal." Raava's voice reprimanded.

Gena thought she must have laid down on her bed and fallen asleep.

"Can't you just leave me alone? I don't want to be your Avatar!" Gena shouted into the darkness.

"Go and get David or Sare, or someone."

Gena remembered Sare mentioning Crytia's name.

"Get Crytia, she's a loyal servant. Get someone that wants all…this!" Gena motioned at nothing, but the whole of her field of vision, which was darkness.

Just as in the spirit world, Raava began to play a vision for Gena to watch as if it were a TV in the sky. Gena watched as Sare was swallowed up by the Earth, David murmuring something and leaving Sare, and then Sare floating down in an unconscious state inside the oasis, and into the shallow waters in the brook.

Gena was shocked.

"I know I do not know him that well, but what happened?" Gena asked in a calm voice.

"Attempted murder" Raava's voice replied.

Gena started walking toward the recently illuminated staircase ahead.

"The David you know is a false identity. There are people in this world that do not want bending or the Avatar to come back into existence."

"I'm with them on that one. The world is fine. Why fix what isn't broken?"

Gena climbed the stairs as once before, and another path illuminated.

"Because it is broken. Ever since humans got the idea that they could gain more riches by controlling other humans, by controlling the things they need to survive, and feeding them false hope and lies, some humans strived to do that very thing. Since the death of Avatar Senka, the world was able to fall prey to that way of thinking by some individuals, and at no consequence. This has disturbed the balance for centuries, and I have had no luck getting this information through to any other Avatar."

"Then why not try someone else? Someone that wants it?"

"Because reincarnation doesn't exist for anyone but the Avatar. Your body is able to hold my spirit alongside your own. Anyone else will die, and be consumed totally by me."

"That cannot be a reason."

"You must take on your role as the Avatar, or the world will continue to thrive at the hands of the usurpers, and eventually destroy itself."

"The world cannot depend on me, Raava."

The illuminated path ended, and Gena stopped, and Raava appeared before her, a dark spot in the direct center of her body pulsating. Gena thought that must be Vaatu being reborn.

"Even though you've seen and experienced proof that bending exists, you still deny it?"

"I do not deny it. I believe it, but it can't be me."

A pool of light appeared perfectly parallel to where Gena was standing, and quickly disappeared, leaving behind a horde of relics.

Pick any of them you want.

"Gifts?" Gena questioned Raava's reason behind this.

"No, a test." Raava bluntly replied.

Gena bent down in front of the stack, and noticed that some were toys, some appeared to be kitchen ware. All of the things were … trash.

"Oh wait, this teapot looks familiar. This rattler does too. A Cher album? How did you find that? I thought I lost it." She attested as she dug through and picked out several more objects.

"You never had any of these things. Your previous lives did. Watch."

The visions started to play again. Gena saw a tiny Raava being guided slowly into the teapot she picked out.

"Avatar Wan, the first Avatar owned that teapot you picked out."

Gena noticed it was the same exact teapot.

A baby was rocking on a rocking horse, and taken off violently. Crying and trying to reach for the rocking horse, the baby disappeared from the vision.

"Avatar Senka treasured that rocking horse when his enemies stole his family from under him while he was out at business."

She did choose a rocking horse, and it did resemble the one she picked.

"Wait…these things are all mine."

"Do you remember receiving them?"

"Yeah, I…no, I do not." Gena finished after a pause, and kicked at the pile of relics, accomplishing nothing.

"You remember them, because they were your treasures from a previous life. Shall I continue with the other items you picked?"

"No, I get the idea." Gena answered blandly, deep in thought.

Gena was now sitting on the floor heavily contemplating all this. Knowing her life was about to change. It had to be for the better. It didn't mean the end of her life, just that her life was going in a different direction. The relics had in fact changed her mind. If she knew of those relics as her own, and they actually belonged to past avatars, then she knew she could no longer fight. The last Avatar died trying to fight all of this, and she knew with all of Raava's persistence, that is what it was going to take for her to be rid of Raava too.

Gena stood up. She knew what she had to do.

"I am the Avatar."

"Are you doing this for the right reasons? Or because you feel you have to."

"The latter, but if what you say is true the government and religions are just living off us, and keeping us ignorant to life, then I actually want to make a difference." Gena relayed with conviction.

"Good. Meet me in the spirit world, so we shall bond again." Ravva said, phasing out of Gena's dream.

"Wait! How will we bond without Harmonic Convergence?"

Gena slowly woke up and sat up in her bed. It was still dark outside. She looked at the digital clock on her night stand against the wall.

"Two o four." She repeated to herself.

She was still dressed, and took advantage of that, and started walking to towards the oasis.

It was pitch black, but she knew that Sare needed her.

A light steadily grew, and moved along the trees. She eventually heard the accompanying engine.

It slowed down, and Gena was immediately on the defensive.

"It's me, David." He yelled after rolling down the window.

The diesel engine made it hard to hear anything, so she too had to shout. She had remembered what Raava showed her, and knew she had to get rid of him.

"Heading to your oasis?" He continued with a mocking tone.

"No, just walking to clear my head. I had a lot going on today." She replied, and started to walk again.

"Okay see you later then." He said and drove off.

She could see the big sycamore tree that she always used as a landmark after walking further a few miles. The moon was full, so that helped a lot with light. It was so big and beautiful.

She finally got to the entrance she always used to go to and from the oasis. She couldn't wait to feel the warmth, it was especially cold out tonight.

"I thought you were just walking to clear your head." David's voice was sharp as he yelled across the road.

Gena began to run. Thank goodness for the continued moonlight, she hates when she can't see where she's going.

"You never know what's in the woods at nighttime."

She reached the oasis, but before she could step through she fell into another one of David's chasms, and hit her head on the ground. The impact nearly knocked her out. Blood was filling her mouth, and she spat, but didn't know where, because she was severely dizzy, and in pain.

"You know me. I'm Sare's boss. Why were you running? I wouldn't hurt you."

"Hurt me?" She spat again, and almost couldn't say the words.

"I know..you did…spit…Sare." She still struggled to say. Dirt and blood did not taste good. She stopped staring, and tried to find footing to get free.

"Did him? I didn't do him! I killed him!" David laughed manically.

"Think again idiot!" Sare's voice sounded through the woods.

Through the entrance to the oasis came a rush of ice and water in the form of a wave. Sare jumped out and over the chasm, and froze David still with a sheet of ice on top pinning him to the ground.

"Sare!" Gena exclaimed, still spitting out dirt.

Sare couldn't see her, but could imagine her smiling.

"I'm glad you're okay."

Gena could only think that she was glad he was alright too. Some of the oasis water trickled down the side of the chasm. She let it fall into her mouth to wash it out, and her mouth healed instantly. She spat again, getting rid of all the dirt, and greedily took some more and swallowed it. She was energized.

"Wow, this is better than alcohol." She thought to herself.

Sare was there, and lifted her out of the chasm.

"Ain't it sweet? The Avatar and her boyfriend. It's a full moon, even as a novice, I am not crazy enough to battle you." The Earth he was pinned again, split from the rest, and flipped over. A slight rumble began, and the Earth was once again still. David was gone.

They looked at each other, and embraced the other. Gena looked over to the chasm and the entrance ot the oasis.

"Now how do we get in? I can't jump that."

"Yeah, I don't think I have any more of those jumps left in me. I just knew I had to save you."

Gena blushed.

"But don't worry Crytia is an earthbender, she can close it up for you." Sare continued.

Gena looked back at Sare.

"I'm sorry, Sare. For yelling at you earlier. I know now that I am the Avatar, and accept it. Besides, have you tasted the oasis water? Wow, I would drink that any day over alcohol."

Sare chuckled at the expression on Gena's face.

"I'm glad you have accepted being the Avatar. No one can do it but you."

Author's Note: Wow, completely amazed again. I didn't even want to write tonight, but I forced myself, and the ideas just flowed as I kept writing. I like to keep each chapter around this length. Sorry if they are too short. Oh, and I don't edit after I am done with a chapter. I edit as I go, so if you notice discrepancies, let me know. And please, PLEASE review so I know I am pleasing my audience.


	6. Chapter 6: Friends and Enemies

**Chapter 6: Friends and Enemies**

A low rumbling was heard as Crytia closed the chasm that David had made last night. Jonathan and the two other society leaders stood nearby. Sare had gotten them all to come to the oasis to meet with the Avatar and see the oasis.

"Thanks Crytia. If it weren't for the full moon, we would have been killed." Gena said.

"Yes, but you weren't, just be glad Sare was there." Crytia replied, turning from her handiwork.

Gena noticed the creases of strain that was once on Crytia's middle-aged face were smoothing out.

"You must not think that way. Everything that happens, works in your favor, whether it is positive or negative. Your favor is what you focus on. Remember that." One of the other leaders said.

"We will." Sare responded in a renewed joyous tone. He had always heard that in the past when he was in the society the first time. Although, he wasn't very sure of what that meant entirely, but he figured it had something to do with not dwelling on the past.

Gena had chose to ignore the comment, and just nodded. She noticed the colors of the other two's waist ties. They were black.

"Why are your ties black? I know that the green and gray means earth and air, but what does black mean?" She asked looking and pointing at them, Crytia, and Jonathan respectively.

Crytia turned from looking at them to face Gena and Sare, "Lee and Tai are non benders. They both were monks in what used to be the fire nation. I went there on somewhat of a sabbatical, and they caught me earthbending. They were always taught in their religion that nothing like that was possible, but when they saw it, they were instant believers, and joined the society."

Gena thought to herself that would explain their bald heads.

"Is there enough room in the oasis for us to look around?" Tai spoke up again.

Gena jumped to life, and motioned.

"Yeah, come on."

Gena found the familiar shimmer in the air, and pushed her way through, being sure to go slow, so the others could follow her successfully.

They gasped as everything looked immaculate. Everything lush and green, and the water a perfect cerulean blue. They were able to look all around. There was no shimmer on that end, and all the woods were visible at the bottom of the thicket of trees guarding the edges of the oasis.

They all did fit in the oasis, but just barely. One wrong move, and someone would take a dive into the waters. Everyone removed their coats and jackets as they began to get a little warm.

"Look!" Lee was the first to notice, and pointed at a white figure coming up from underneath the waterfall.

It was Raava.

"So, let me get this straight. You earthbent, giving away your identity as a bender to the boy you were supposed to keep away from the Avatar? Didn't make sure he was dead? Revealed yourself to the Avatar as well? AND revealed the secret of the full moon to the both of them?" An older man dressed finely in a light blue double breasted suit shouted at a downtrodden David.

"I saw no other way…"

BAM! The man banged his fist down on the large ornate oak table between them.

"You saw no other way? Why not simply keep them apart. When you knew he was going to the oasis, why go with him? Intercept the Avatar!"

The man began to pace, holding his chin with one hand, and the other in one of the pockets.

"So, the Avatar now knows bending exists, accepts her role, and will educate the whole world."

The man stops pacing, and stares through the wall-length window at the end of the room.

"We do not know if she accepts anything yet." David tried to redeem himself.

The man closes his eyes, and exhales.

"She saw bending. She knows it exists, why would she not accept her role?"

A knock was heard.

"Yes?" The man answered.

Brak came in acting cool. This was his other job to support himself what he didn't make with bartending. He was all dressed up in a beige suit and tie.

"The files you wanted sir."

"Give them to him" The man pointed at David.

"And I told you to call me Yang." Yang said more politely as to smooth things over and act like somewhat of a saint.

There was an awkward silence that was promptly interrupted by Yang.

"Brak is your name, right?"

Brak nodded.

"Do you know this man?"

"Yes sir, he owns the food stand in the old bazaar."

"Yes, David here has some business to attend to out of Slaena. But there is a girl that frequents his stand by the name of Gena. Do you by any chance know her?"

Yang knew that Brak knew Gena, and knew that he had to keep them away from each other, but having her on his side, he could make sure they weren't together. He knew the consequences.

Brak felt an extreme dread sweep over him. He didn't want anything more to do with her. He considered lying, but knew it would look bad if he was found out.

"Unfortunately, sir." Was all he could think up.

This was better than he had hoped. The boy didn't like her, so keeping them apart would be a cinch. But wait, if he didn't like her, they wouldn't spend any time together; but the prophecy. So many things to consider.

"Actually, I was going to ask you to do me a favor and speak to her, but I have more to consider. You may leave."

"More to consider? What did that mean? Well, best to leave well enough alone." Brak thought to himself.

Brak left without another word, and continued on his work.

Yang thought to himself for a moment about how to handle all this. He couldn't figure this all out by himself. He had to use Gyree. He looked at a pitiful-looking David.

"I need you out of Slaena, now."

"But my things." David knew he was out of line, but he couldn't just up and leave everything behind, a lifetime of nostalgic things, his life, most irreplaceable.

"There's a plane ticket waiting on you at the airport. You will be compensated. Now leave! Oh, and have my secretary send in Gyree for me."

David said nothing else. He knew disobeying or speaking out of turn could cost him his life.

Yang followed David out; watched as he left, speak to his secretary as demanded, into the elevator, and out of the building into an alley beside the building. David crossed a manhole, and with a hollow breath, the water beneath it rose up, and froze David solid. A flick of his wrist, and David's body was torn apart as the ice statue that was David, split in two. Finally a pressing downward gesture, melted the ice, and went back down into the sewer. All that was left was David's bloody remains, which were hardly visible from the 16th floor of Yang Shi Enterprises.

"Yang, sir?"

"Oh yes, Gyree, thank you for coming. Drop the sir stuff. We're all family here, especially you." Yang doted on the young woman.

Gyree, a young and beautiful gypsy-type lady, at least 30 years his junior, dressed as appropriate as he, walked with him back to his office.

"Gyree, I am in desperate need of some guidance. Please, use your foresight to help me." Yang said as he closed the door to his office.

Sare, Crytia, Jonathan, Tai, and Lee stood in awe in the woods after speaking with Raava. They spoke with the spirit that existed before humans, and shared the body of the very first Avatar. That made everything they endured and built with blood and tears worth every second. Crytia and Jonathan looked at one another, and embraced the other.

"Uhm, I'm glad you enjoyed it?" Gena spoke to break the silence with a wry smile.

"Yes, Avatar, that in itself was a life changing experience." Crytia said with tears still welling in her eyes.

"And now, young Avatar, begins your training." Jonathan finished.

Sare took up the rear, as he wished he could just stay and talk with Raava.

"Gena. Do you ever think we will see Raava again?" He already knew the answer to that question, but wanted some reinforcement.

"I will, I am going to the spirit world to train with her and other spirits." Gena said matter-of-factly.

Another silence.

"I wonder if spirits could help me with waterbending." He was hinting at Gena now, and she had noticed.

"That sounds like a good idea, Gena." Jonathan mentioned.

Gena, the leader of the semi-line stopped, and turned around to face the others.

"I have embraced this role of the Avatar, and I like you all, but I'd rather face this all alone."

Sare had stepped out of the line, to be able to look Gena in the eye. Gena knew he had saved her life, and knew they would get along, but she was a loner.

"We have earth and air right here, but no water. I really think I could benefit…" Sare tried to explain.

"Fine, but I need my space." Gena conceded.

The line resumed, and they all just fit into Jonathan's car, minus Gena, she had decided to just walk home. They said their goodbyes, and drove off.

"This is not going to be a fun time explaining to my work that I am quitting."

Gena worked at a mom and pop store, walking distance from her house. She was basically the only employee aside from the husband and wife that owned the store, and occasionally the husband's mother.

"You're what? Come on, please stay, is it a raise you want? I'll give you that." The woman said still helping customers and putting away the truck that came earlier with their supplies.

She didn't want to lose Gena. She was honest and hardworking. Albeit, she had a tendency to drink a lot, she'd rather keep her, than to go through all the trouble of hiring someone new, and extending trust again.

"I'm sorry, I have to save the world from destroying itself." Was the only excuse she could think of, but wouldn't dare say.

"I'm sorry, but…" Gena started.

"Can you stay to the end of the week at least? Give me the time to find someone?" She more or less pleaded.

"You're quitting?" A regular customer who was eavesdropping inquired.

"Yeah, she's leaving, who knows why."

"Why Gena?" The same customer asked.

"Well…" Gena started.

"I got another job offer out of Slaena." Hey, it wasn't a total lie, Gena thought to herself.

"Oh? What will you be doing at this foreign job?" Her boss asked who stopped and stared at Gena as if she committed betrayal.

"Making the world a better place." Another not a total lie.

"Yeah, I could sense a change in you. Your aura changed colors. I had to find a reason to ask why." The customer said.

Gena's boss just rolled her eyes, and continued to work while Gena and customer stepped to the side.

Brak went to his childhood home. He was nearly 16 when his parents had died in that accident, and the courts let him stay by himself, with occasional supervision. He went into his house, took off his shirt, threw it on the floor, and relaxed in his lay-z-boy recliner. Switching on the news.

"The body found was apparently a visitor to the Yang Shi building, David…" The newscaster started.

"What?!" Brak exclaimed after seeing his picture and hearing his first name.

"I just saw him. What could have happened?"

Brak ran his thick fingers through jet black hair as he strained to think. He had to do what he always did when he was worried about something; exercise.

He turned up the news, and went into another room before climbing onto his bowflex. The exercising continued for a good hour, and the phone rang.

"Hey Brak, man, no need to come in tonight. That man who tried to rob us, he is suing for facial damage. We have to talk to our lawyer early in the morning. Too early."

"Okay, but do you need me to give a statement or whatever?"

"Yeah, but it won't be right now. I gotta go, but I'll see you a few hours early tomorrow, is that okay?"

It would be Saturday, so he was off from Yang Shi Enterprises, so a few hours early for the bartending job wouldn't bother him at all. Although, Friday is when he would make the most money, so not only was he sad about David, but now depressed because he was out a few hundred from the club.

"Yeah, that's fine, Donnie."

"Good, see you tomorrow at 3."

Screw exercising, he was going running now. He left his shirt on the floor, and just left.

He was down a few blocks, and a very nice red foreign Sato mobile stopped beside him on the sidewalk, running in place.

The passenger window rolled down.

"Brak, m'boy."

Brak stopped running in place. He couldn't really tell the face, but the voice was unmistakable.

"Yang?" Brak said a little short of breath.

"Good, I'm glad you stopped using that dreaded, sir, phrase all the time."

Brak chuckled.

"You heard about David, right?"

"Yeah, that was awful, I can't get it out of my head. I just saw him a short while ago."

"He will be missed. Terrible, terrible circumstance. Well, I talked it over with my assistant, and I want to give you a new position with a substantial raise. What do you think?"

Brak was stunned, and ever so happy. His heart still beating fast, but he was not sure if it was from the fast paced running, the excellent news he just received, or both.

"Heck yeah! That'll be great."

"Good that is what I want to hear."

"Come by and talk with me tomorrow around noon. I want to get to know you a little better, and give you a formal interview."

A beep behind Yang and a solid THUD came from what sounded like Yang's trunk.

"I just heard a bang from your trunk."

"Huh? Oh, you never know with these foreign cars." Yang chuckled slightly.

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow then. Thank you Yang."

Yang smiled a little, and drove off rolling up his window.

"Wow! Two pieces of bad news, and then this comes through." Brak thought to himself as he started to jog this time.

"Wait. I have to be at the club at 3. I'll just have to call the club and say something came up." He said again to himself, and started to jog back home. A short run, but a great run, he thought.

Yang's car came to a halt on an old wooden bridge on a back road. He climbed out of his car, and went to he trunk. He started to open the trunk, and quickly let go, side stepping to his left, just as a large fireball engulfed the space he was just at, and a steady stream thereafter.

Yang took to the offensive, and drew the water under the bridge, into his trunk, encapsulating his victim.

"Now, I know you can hear me. That was a very foolish thing you did, when I stopped a few miles back, banging on the trunk, begging for attention; and just now, trying to defend yourself. Pathetic. Goodbye."

A few erratic hand gestures, and the woman's head hit the bottom of the bridge and sides of the bridge. Yang then made her fly up at least 75 feet into the air, let her loose from the bubble, and Gyree, the psychic confidant / assistant plummeted to her immediate death among the stones and stream below.

The ball of water filled swirls of blood flew into a side tank attached to Yang's car.

"Stupid girl. She couldn't see the future at all. I AM NO FOOL!" He proclaimed and shouted.

Yang got into his Sato mobile, and drove off.

Author's Note: Wow, it took me 2 hours longer to write this chapter. I got stuck on what to say with the first part with Gena, Sare, and friends. Then got stuck with David and Yang, and then murder popped into my head. I was just as surprised as you all were, but I had to write it. At first I was gonna make Yang an earthbender, but decided that Crytia and David were too many earthbenders this early on. Then I made him a firebender, but couldn't think of a proper death scene. Airbending would cause too much of a scene, so I settled with water. All in all, I am happy with the way this one turned out. This was never meant to be a dark fanfic. I like the dark ones to an extent, but I think everyone tries to make one. I hope this chapter doesn't exclude me from some forums. Let me know before deleting the story, and I'll try to think of something. Oh, and Brak, I was going to fit him in Chapter 8, but as you know with my stories and me, I am a slave to my fingers and the keyboard lol. Let me know if it's too dark for you, or what direction you would like to see me take. Chapter 7 should be tomorrow, but we'll see.


	7. Chapter 7: Changes in Lives

**Chapter 7: Changes in Lives**

Brak headed down the familiar hallway he'd always seen since he started to work for Yang Shi Enterprises, and became a sort of unofficial assistant to Yang.

Knock, knock

He rapped on the door.

"Come on in m'boy." Yang replied with a little gusto.

Brak pushed open the heavy double doors, and entered the also familiar office, and his eyes fell directly on the chair he saw David in just yesterday.

"I know this was kind of sudden. I was going to call you later yesterday evening. I hope I didn't keep you from anything." Yang said with mock concern.

Yang motioned for Brak to sit down in the same chair David did. Brak felt a little uneasy about it, but obeyed all the same.

"I had another job to go to, but this takes priority, and I was actually asked to come in early. My boss understood."

Yang stopped organizing papers and looked at Brak with a little worry.

"He understood? What did you tell him?"

Brak ignored Yang's expression, and answered, "Oh, just that I had to talk with you."

"Not giving all the information? I hope you won't do that with me."

It was Brak's turn to wear the worried expression on his face, as he realized what he just admitted to.

"Oh, no sir, I just didn't want to tell him…"

"The truth." Yang interrupted.

Brak knew there was no way of getting out of this, he just admitted defeat with an affirmative answer, and prayed he didn't screw up.

"I'm just giving you a hard time Brak, don't sweat it."

Brak felt a little easier.

Yang broke eye contact with Brak, and continued to go through his papers. He pulled out one in particular, and read from it.

"I see here that you have not been tardy to work, do disciplinary actions, a hard worker, and no complaints. So, based on this, you do what you are told without question, and you put no special effort into making the company better."

Brak started to wonder if this was an interview or an interrogation, he felt so nervous.

"How much do you know about my company, Brak?"

Brak didn't have to really think about it. He had only been there 13 months, but he knew most of the functions through clerical work.

"We help make life better." Brak ended with that. His mind went totally blank.

"Well, that was certainly vague." Yang responded, stood up, and started to pace a little.

"Let's try again. This time, tell me why we make life better."

Brak started to fidget with his fingers under the table, and really rack his brain.

"We make life better by producing life saving medical equipment at half the normal cost overseas. We also give to many charities, fund pharmacies, and help individuals get the medical attention they need."

Brak heaved a heavy sigh of relief to himself.

"This life saving medical equipment, do you know how it works, and what kind of pharmacies do we help fund?"

"I'm not sure about the first one, but he pharmacies we help fund are little pharmacies that focus on alternate forms of healing."

"Yes, it is all about the image m'boy."

Yang stopped at the window behind his desk, and peered out onto the street.

"Tell me, Brak. Are you ready for a rewarding career in this field? You want to make 7,8,9, even 10 figures a year?"

"Wow, sir, yes."

"There you go again with that, sir, business."

"Sorry, yes, Yang." Brak should have known better. That's one of the first things he was told, and always reminded by Yang.

Yang was still peering out of the window.

"Our machines, focus on vibrations from every living organism in our body. Our bodies, skin, bones, muscles, even down to the very cells of each of these things vibrate at a certain frequency. Our machines lock on, and go to work healing the vibrations with non intrusive surgeries."

Brak was no longer worried, but astounded. He's never heard of any of this, but it does sound eerily familiar.

"Wow, I never heard of these procedures."

"Of course not, we don't readily talk about it with the public. Our customers know they work, know that the procedures are virtually pain free, and they buy into machines."

Brak couldn't help but wonder why he was telling him all of this. It was almost like he was in some sort of inner circle now. Why him though? He was a paper pusher, a go getter, not a salesman or a technical expert."

Yang had turned around, and taken his seat again across from Brak, and looked him in the eyes.

"What I want you to do, is to be the face of the company. Sell our products through ads. You won't be creating the ads, just be the face on them. All-Slaenian looks, dark hair, good tan, muscular? Oh yeah, you have what I want on our ads, and what we need as a company. You will participate in all meetings, going overseas, speak at conventions, the works. I know it sounds like a lot, but do you have better things to do?"

Flattery, big money, big job, travel, and pair it all with just a bit of presumptuous rudeness, is a formula that has always worked for Yang. It seems to be working on Brak as well. Keeping him away from Gena is a top priority, even if it does cost him a bundle. Simply getting rid of him like David and Gyree isn't an option. He will be missed, noticed, and it could come back harsh on Yang; so he had to find a way to make it good for himself and Brak.

Brak didn't need much time to think at all. This is the break he always wanted. Toiling for years at a factory, then coming here was a break in itself, and now something like a modeling gig? Who can say no?

"Sign me up, Yang!"

Yang slammed his open palm down on the table.

"That's what I like to hear m'boy."

Gena shook hands with her boss, now her old boss. The lady tried to look happy for her, but losing her to another job overseas was just too much. She and Gena parted ways, She went back inside the store, and Gena began to walk home.

Gena was home. Clothes had to be done, she thought, and remembered what Tai and Lee had told her about not needing anything but the bare essentials. She had a hiking book bag that had some essentials.

"Yeah, for hiking." She thought, but she grabbed it anyway.

She showered, washed clothes anyway, cleaned, and cleaned her refrigerator. Not knowing if she was ever going to come back, or how long she was going to be gone.

She heard her ringtone. It was Crytia.

"Hello."

"Are you ready? It's almost nightfall."

"Yes."

"You're not bringing much right?"

"No."

Gena was always direct on the phone, as she hated to carry on conversations.

Jonathan was there shortly to pick her up. Sare was with him. She squeezed through piles of books, and various items Sare thought he needed.

"So much for packing lightly. I'm the girl here, and I only have this."

"Yeah, but what's in it?" Sare retorted.

Gena stayed silent.

"He's not going to bring half that stuff. He knows only the bare essentials are needed. The rest of the stuff will stay with us at the society." Jonathan stated.

They arrived at the field from her vision, and where David had took Sare to earlier in the week.

Gena kept swearing she could see it on fire, but brushed it off, and Jonathan noticed her being a little uneasy.

"You can share with us Gena, you now?"

"It's nothing, just a stupid vision, back before I met Raava."

"Oh?" Sare perked up.

Jonathan stared at her intently too.

"There were a lot of people in this field, and it was on fire, and they were too."

Gena noticed the worried / shock expressions on their faces.

"I don't think it was any kind of premonition though."

This did not reassure Jonathan at all.

"We'll have to keep an extra close eye on things then." Jonathan said, sounding worried.

Jonathan lifted his hands high into the air of the night sky, and brought his hands straight down to the ground toward a hole that Gena just noticed.

A slight hum was heard, and the ground broke down into a stair case with a bright dancing light at the bottom that was apparently fire.

Jonathan lead the party of three down into the Earth, and Crytia was there to lift the staircase back up to level land. The ceiling gave no proof of any disturbance.

"Welcome to the society headquarters, Avatar Gena." Crytia said with a slight bow.

The whole place looked amazing. She knew it was carved out of the Earth, but it looked immaculate, like a machine did it. Fire-lit torches lined the room they were in, and the hallways ahead that branched off into different rooms.

"In the next few days, you and Sare will be leaving from the harbor to the south pole, where you will enter the spirit world." Crytia explained.

"Yeah, Raava already told me this, but the thing I do not understand is, how will I get there, and what about my house?"

Sare cleared his throat.

"I mean, how will we get there?"

"Well, we will provide you the boat that Tai, Lee, and I used to come back from my sabbatical. We will also keep an eye on your house, and take care of the bills and yard maintenance. Sare lives with his parents, so we only have to do yours."

"Great. Live at home, huh?"

"Yeah." Sare answered with a grimace.

"Ahem!" Crytia cleared her throat.

"The spirit world will be a little harder to get into. We all believe that the portal will appear to be a rift in the air just like it was for the oasis, but finding that rift, is something we do not know how to guide you on."

They started to walk through the hallway to the other end. Each room was filled with things that Gena had never seen or heard of before. One room off to her right was a huge pool of water seemingly just floating there, nothing holding it back.

"How?"

"Oh, that is my room for training." Sare began.

"The water is held in place by a device designed by Tai and Lee to emulate waterbending." Crytia further explained.

Gena's eyes widened as she never even heard of manmade machines nowadays that could do this.

Sare decided to show off a bit. All of the water that was held in place, rose to the air, and collapsed into a thick sheet of ice in front of him. Sare smirked a little, melted the ice, made it do a few tricks in the air, and go back into place. The device beeped for a second, flashing red, and then green. The rested his body and arms. Gena seemed somewhat impressed, Jonathan smiled a little, but Crytia rolled her eyes, and kept walking.

"When Tai and Lee came here to join the society. There was nothing we could say or do to satiate their thirst for knowledge. Especially after seeing this." She said as she walked up to the next room on the left, and pointed.

Animals beyond Gena's comprehension existed within.

"That's a Rabbiroo, Hogmonkey, all those are wolfbats, a herd of sky bison, a polar bear dog."

The room was huge. Carefully sectioned out to create habitats for the various animals. Sare was still explaining, and pointed to a single creature.

"That's a badgermole."

Another one joined the one badgermole as the wall of earth behind it opened up as a collapsing door, and closed.

"Did you do that Crytia?" Gena asked.

"No, some of these creatures can bend. As matter of fact, Ones like the badgermoles and sky bison are the ones that taught some of the greatest benders how to bend."

Gena stood in awe. Creatures that could bend. Bending is natural? A part of nature? How could all of this be so easily concealed from the public?

"And this one over there, his name is foo foo cuddly poops."

Gena shook her head as if she were doing a double take. "What?"

"Foo Foo Cuddly Poops." Sare said a bit slower.

Gena chuckled a little. "Why do you call him that?"

The large creature looked menacing. It looked like a large moose with the teeth of a saber-toothed lion. It was in a cage of earth, quite large though, and very deep, as most of the habitats were.

"That's his name." Jonathan said matter-of-factly.

Gena turned from Sare to Jonathan.

"How do you know?"

"Tai can hear the thoughts of animals, and this one was given its name around a thousand or more years ago."

Gena was still astonished, somewhat more so. Tai can speak to animals? Wow, Crytia wasn't kidding when she said that their thirst for knowledge was insatiable.

"And now, if you look up you'll see…" Sare continued.

"A Dragon?" Gena sounded even more astonished.

This was so much to take in. The world is so different now. Almost like a world within a world. Gena began to stutter a little out of wonder and a little frustration.

"Do not worry Gena. This is a lot to take in now, but you and Sare will have a lot more education in the spirit world, and you have the rest of your life to figure out more things. Just try not to take everything so fast." Jonathan took her being frustrated on a hunch.

The Avatar world was indeed a lot for Gena to take into account. If this labyrinth of rooms is just a taste of what there is to learn, how would she ever fulfill her role?

"Oh, and don't worry about learning all of this, most of this stuff is history, not the future. These creatures do not exist in the spirit world, and these are the last of their kind, destined to be extinct. Tai and Lee are currently working on a way to bring them back, though. Progress is slow, but moving forward." Jonathan took on another hunch.

"I wish we could let them out. They have to be miserable in here."

"I bet they are. We are hoping that when you become a fully realized Avatar, you can reintroduce these to the public, so they don't have to live here, underground." Lee said as he passed through to feed an armadillocat.

"Let's not overwhelm the Avatar. Now that we're through gawking at the livestock, let's continue on." Crytia seized an opportunity to continue on.

"I am sure Raava has plans for you In the spirit world, but we have not, so we do not know the dangers you will face. So could you document some areas for us?" Crytia tried to hint carefully.

"I've been to the spirit world, and yes, I brought my camera."

Jonathan and Crytia stopped dead in their tracks, and turned to Gena.

"Yeah, once in the oasis. Raava was able to communicate with me, and drag my spirit into the spirit world."

Jonathan and Crytia stared heavily at Gena, almost pleading her to continue.

"It was beautiful. All the plant life was more green than you could imagine. Spirits floating to and fro, and a huge castle looking building hung upside down. I think Raava called it, Wonky Kong's Library?"

"Wong Shi Tong's Library." Lee butted in as he passed by the group again.

They all followed Lee with their eyes.

"Yes, the library. You will learn a lot there, but from what I have read on the history of avatars; Wong Shi Tong is not the friendly type." Jonathan explained.

Gena looked more worried now than ever.

"Do not worry, I am sure Raava will be with us." Sare sensed her concern.

They continued to walk, passing more rooms. One with a huge and ancient door that Crytia described as an airbender door. She further explained that it was only the door, and not in the best of shape either. Another room held a great many statues of men and women. Crytia explained that the statues were the past lives of the Avatar, and that it was said that whenever certain conditions were met, the eyes of each statue glowed.

Gena tried to imagine that. She bet it was a sight to behold. She still could not believe that her life was heading in this direction. It all seemed so unreal. She was trying her best to conceal her frustration and keep it under control, to not think about it. Take it as it comes. Which was always hard for her to do.

Another room was filled with books, and the last room, was empty.

They got to the room at the end of the hall. The room was mostly empty save for torches, and staircases leading upwards on either end of the wide room.

"Sare, Jonathan, Tai, and Lee have the left staircase, and you and I have the right." Crytia explained.

"For what?"

"Those are the sleeping quarters, you put your belongings in there, and sleep. You won't be leaving for a few days. It will give you a little bit of time to become acquainted with the society headquarters."

"Yes, this place is amazing, huge, confusing. So much to learn. I will want a few days or more."

"Be careful not to take too much time. I do not want to rush you, but Raava chose this time in your life, it has to be for a reason."

With that said, they dispersed to their quarters, but Gena stayed behind to go to the room with the statues.

She found the one of a manly figure, but dressed as a woman. Complete with a fancy headdress and a set of…

"Fans?"

"Avatar Kyoshi." Tai startled Gena and explained.

"She was an earthbender like you are."

"Like me? I thought I would bend all the elements being the Avatar."

"Oh, you will, but your eyes tell of your nation."

Gena took a closer look at Tai.

"Your eyes are blue, so water?"

"Yes, I would be a waterbender if I were a bender, and Lee would be a firebender, his eyes are a golden color."

Gena looked back at the statue, and mimicked Kyoshi's pose.

"Thanks, Tai." Gena started, before she turned back around, and he was gone.

Brak just got off the phone with his manger at the club, practically giving no notice of quitting, only a few days, as his new job at Yang Shi Enterprises started then.

"Me, a model?" He said aloud as he flexed In the mirror in his room, trying out different poses to see which one he would use as a signature pose.

He wasn't the type of guy that would just fawn in the mirror, but the job offer did get him a little self conscious, so off to exercising and running again, he thought.

**Author's Note: **Okay, I know that the conversation between Gena and Tai, and then that last sliver with Brak didn't make much sense, but I was toying around with an idea, and they just didn't seem right at the time, so I just kept them short, and only added a little more information.

Well, this chapter certainly was longer than the rest; on average, I'd say 500 words longer. Sorry if it got too tedious to read. There was a LOT of dialogue and no real action, but like every series out there, there are some filler episodes, well, I guess this was my filler chapter lol. Don't hate me too much for it.


	8. Chapter 8: Paths and Knowledge

**Chapter 8: New Paths and Knowledge**

Flashes were going off simultaneously and some sporadically. It was Brak's first day of work at his new job. Brak was posing in many different styles at his discretion, and the camera's kept going. Flexing, smiling, seductive smiling, and this made dimples show on his cheeks, and the female photographers were going wild. Backgrounds were switched often, and he was shown in many different positions.

"Are we doing him nude?" One photographer shouted.

"No!" Someone in the background shouted in reply.

And the photos continued. It was tiring, and Brak felt a little exposed, especially when the thought of posing nude came up. This was a total lifestyle change for Brak. Not that he minded. He just thought of it as his 15 minutes of fame. Of course, he knew that this 15 minutes of fame was going to last a lot longer.

"Alright, let's take a break. We got the pictures we wanted for the day. Not many new positions we can put our poster boy through." Yang finally came in, and shooed everyone out.

One photographer came up to talk to Brak.

"Hey man, let me take some shots in the buff. When your popularity goes down, these can be leaked, and it can only lead to more money." The man said with a greased palms gesture.

"I don't know. It's one thing for this, but to take off all my clothes?".

The man put an arm around his shoulders, and started to walk with Brak in tow.

"Come on, it'll be a private session with just you and me. I'm straight, you're straight. Waddya say?"

"Uh, yeah, about that…but no, I just can't." He said, looking a little flushed, and stuttering a little.

The photographer wasted no more time, not even giving parting words. The man just disappeared into the crowd of other photographers, leaving the studio.

The place was one huge room. Littered with large photography equipment, various scene props, background boards, green screens, you name it, the place had it.

Yang shook a few hands, talked with a few people, and finally caught up with a sulking Brak.

"M'boy you look great, a natural at modeling. Hey, what's wrong?"

"So much is expected of me. One guy even wanted me to strip buck-naked."

Yang laughed, "I shouted no when he asked. Don't worry about him though. Once your confidence is up, he'll try again, and just turn him down again."

"Yeah, okay, Yang."

"Trust me, it'll only get better after the shoots. They don't happen often, and just wait until your first check."

Brak shook his head to agree, and lifted his spirits manually.

"That's what I'm talking about. Now I have some meetings to attend to, nothing concerning you yet, that will be tomorrow, and the rest of your life."

Brak's eyes got a little big, and his body stiff.

"Just don't worry. You now what?" Yang started as he took out a wad of cash, and began to count it out.

"Here's 1, 2, 3, 4 hundred bucks for you to go out and blow. Completely on me. Just go out and enjoy life. You like to exercise, right? Go to the onsite gym here, and work out some. Get some new clothes, go out eating. You'll love it here. Slaena isn't called the free world for nothing, you know?" Yang preached.

Brak's eyes were getting even bigger, if at all possible. He didn't even know what to do. Well, running, and fooling around with his exercise equipment always helped to clear his mind. He jogged out of the building, and just ran around the premises.

"Oh come on now. You've disappointed me. You're resume said you were the best, and I have seen nothing but failure." A man was saying to another.

They were practically eye to eye. The more aggressive one was pushing himself into the other, obviously very timid, other man. He was shaking, trying to keep his balance on a tripod they just got to, trying to assert that he was not going to be pushed any farther.

"I'm sorry, Meilin, sir. Things just happen."

That was absolutely the wrong thing to say to Meilin. He knew the consequences of failing Yang. He was on a tier 3 levels below Yang; low enough to be dispensable, but high enough to know about bending, and to find his own abilities. Anything lower, and that person would be like the other guy. Hardworking yet careless, lazy, and no knowledge of bending.

"Things just happen? Let me get this straight. Yang, the CEO and founder of Yang Shi Enterprises, the most ruthless man that I know, is supposed to understand that things just happen?"

The other man was sweating, as he felt heat emanate from Meilin.

"Yeah, it, it's a rule of life." The last syllable was a little hard for the other guy to get out.

"You're not putting me in a situation like the others." Meilin said threateningly.

Brak was running, and came close to the scene where the two men were arguing, and a blaze of fire flew into the sky. Brak saw this, and stopped to jog in place.

"Holy crap!" He exclaimed, looking around to see if anyone could help.

A fire extinguisher caught his eye against a wall of another building. He grabbed it, and ran to where he saw the blaze of fire.

Brak got to the scene, and Meilin had the other guy by the collar, and his other fist reared back, ready to strike. Meilin noticed Brak, and knew who he was. He loosed his grip from the man, and wiped his brow, messing up his long burnt auburn hair in the process.

"Whew, that was close. A piece of equipment exploded. I guess it was overcharged or something. Ain't that right, Wade?" Meilin tried his best to make up an excuse.

This was the perfect opportunity for Wade to get out of there.

"I..I have to go find somebody to replace the equipment." Wade quickly thought up, and ran away.

"I'm just glad everyone's okay. I saw the flames, and saw this, and came running." Brak explained.

"Yeah, we're fine, thanks though." Meilin conceded.

Brak left jogging again to put the extinguisher back, and then jogged back the same direction Wade went.

"Now, I have to find him. He saw me bend. I was careless. I can't let Yang find out about this." Meilin said to himself with furrowed brows.

He punched the brick wall hard, and with the impact came an explosion of fire.

It was the next day, and Gena rolled out of bed. She opened her eyes to find herself at the society headquarters. She wasn't dreaming any of this she thought. Then the weight of all the new knowledge came back to her.

She used the bathroom that was in her room, washed her face, fixed her hair, and went to find where she could eat. Leaving her room, she noticed the opposite staircase, and wondered if Sare and the others were up. The place was so big that she couldn't hear any noises except for the occasional animal noise from another room.

Someone must be up, breakfast was all laid out on a table between the two staircases.

Lee came out of the massive hallway from feeding animals. She could tell due to his stench, and overall appearance.

"Good morning Avatar." He said with some gusto.

"Just Gena." She replied.

"Breakfast, as you can see, is just over there. That is mainly where we serve our meals away from the animal smells." He explained.

"Where is everyone else?"

"Oh, Crytia is about somewhere, maybe on the surface. She likes to take a morning run. Sare and Jonathan are still in bed, and Tai is at the monastery."

"Must be nice to be an earthbender to get out of here." Gena said, looking around, and taking another bite of her bagel.

"You will get there soon enough Ava…I mean Gena."

Gena noticed Tai about to leave, "You said that Tai was at the monastery?" She said with partial food in her mouth.

"Yes, we, the society members built a monastery for monks since there are none close by."

Gena swallowed, "I never knew there was one. Well, thank you Lee. I will not keep you from doing whatever it is that you are doing."

Tai gave a half bow, and left to the other staircase for the men.

Gena grabbed a sausage biscuit from the table, and went to greet the animals.

"Good morning everyone."

This was a mistake. She should have known better than to bring food around the animals. Some licked their maws, and some tried nervously to get out of their environments, and they all made their respective call of nervousness.

Gena noticed what she had done, and backed away slowly, apologizing to the animals.

Lee came back around the corner.

"Uhm, sorry Lee, I wasn't thinking. I believe I stirred the animals up." She said with a guilty grin.

"Oh, that would explain the din." Lee replied, and attended quickly.

Gena heard a splash, and went down to the suspended water room.

Sare was in there, concentrating hard on a bubble of water. Gena didn't know what he was trying to do, and leaned against a column of what would be a door frame to watch and not disturb.

Sare's back was turned to her. He was heavily concentrating and grunting. He crashed the bubble of water into a wall, and screamed out of impatience. He drew the water back out of the wall after a minute with his back still turned, took a deep breath, squatted, strained, and passed gas.

"Whoops. Excuse me, whoever" He said a little loud.

He fell back onto the floor.

"Ugh, I need a teacher."

"Well, next time I will announce myself. And I need one too."

"Gena!" He exclaimed as he quickly got up, and looked her in the eye. His face instantly turned beet red.

"I, uhm…excuse me." He said still red, staring off to the side.

"I've heard and smelled worse." She chuckled.

"What is it, you're trying to do?" She asked.

"Well, if I guide the water like this, and snatch back at the precise moment, I can make the water whip. It's such a low level move. I can do higher level offensive things, but I can't seem to get this."

"Maybe you're trying too hard?" She offered.

"Yeah, maybe. You mean like you?" He added.

Sare looked away when he said that. He knew that subject had to be a sore spot with her.

"What do you mean? I haven't tried to bend yet."

"You trying to take all of this Avatar stuff in too quick. It is a lot of knowledge to take in, but if I can do it, you can too."

"Yeah, but you've had years. You may not have believed in bending all this time, but the little things still stuck with you."

"It wasn't my place to say such a thing anyway, sorry."

He passed gas in front of her, and now maybe insulted her, not a good way to win her affection. Sare had a thing for Gena, but had no way of knowing when to say anything. He knew now wasn't a good time, because of her just learning all this stuff, but when?

"Yeah, it is all confusing, but I will try to take it slow. I'll tackle that book room here in a few minutes. Maybe when Crytia gets back I can get some fresh air. Oh sorry, no pun."

Gena laughed so hard at the last part.

"Really, no pun." She continued.

Sare couldn't help but to laugh too.

Gena was laughing so hard, she had to brace herself to keep balance on one of the columns. The column gave in, and a chunk flew towards Sare, landing at his feet.

"Wow! You just earthbent."

"Yeah, unless Crytia is around here somewhere." Gena said dryly, and looking around past the doorway.

Gena stuck her arm out, trying to summon the chunk of earth back to her, and in place back on the door frame.

Nothing happened in a few minutes. She closed her eyes, and tried to manipulate the earth on a cellular level upon Sare's instruction. Still nothing.

Gena sighed, "I will just have to wait until we get to the spirit world. When do we leave?".

"The day after tomorrow." Sare replied.

"Well, I'm going to do some reading, I'll see you later."

Sare picked up the piece of earth, and placed it on the ground where Gena was standing.

Brak stopped jogging, was breathing heavy, and stopped around the corner of the building he was just having his photo shoot at.

"I tell you, he yelled into the air out of anger, and fire shot out from his mouth." Wade exasperatingly told, raising his voice to a group of his coworkers.

Wade saw something out the corner of his eyes. He noticed Brak, but then the group of his peers dispersed. Wade noticed, and looked down at the ground.

"They don't believe me. Hell, I don't even believe me. That kind of thing can't exist, can it?"

Brak thought a second about it all to find the best words to say.

"Yeah, when I came to you all, I saw just the flame, and him going to punch you. It was rather odd, but I guess that equipment meant a lot to him." Brak said with a little chuckle at the end.

Wade, no older than and about as tall as Brak (5'10"), with salt and pepper hair. That's unusual for the age of 22, but nonetheless, accurate.

"Perhaps it was just the explosion." Brak tried to console yet urge him to accept reality.

Wade knew there was no explosion, other than Meilin losing it and shouting fire.

"Yeah." Wade knew there was no convincing Brak, so he just kept staring at the ground.

"Hey, cheer up, we all see things in the heat of the moment."

Brak thought about that for a second.

"Uhm, no pun intended." Brak chuckled.

Wade chuckled too, and looked up at Brak.

"I'm Wade. Thanks for coming to our rescue."

Brak blushed a little.

"Brak. I am just glad you both were okay. Even fire breathing guy."

"Really?" Wade said sarcastically with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, wow. I didn't mean it like that. Sorry, Wade."

Wade started to walk away, and turned to thank Brak one last time, looking him up and down, and left.

Wade knew he had to get out of there and fast, his hormones would have to just stay in check. The man just, well, breathed fire. He had to go away, and fast. He was scared, and didn't know where to go, or even how to get there. He did know about the Avatar society, but knew nothing about it. It was one of those things that made life very difficult. Not knowing where to turn, it was an awful feeling for him.

"I bet you're wondering why you're here, Meilin." Yang started.

"You are a level 3 member of society. I'm level 6. This guy, Wade? He is a level 2. They work hard, but are extremely lazy, and do nothing to earn their place in this world." Yang continued, and started to pace.

They both were inside a small garage area. It resembled a workshop. Tools and toolboxes were scattered on a counter parallel to a work bench, which is where Yang paced. Meilin chose to stand on the other side. He wanted a chance to run if need be. Yang had granted the request to stand as he was confident in his waterbending skills.

"As a level 3, you are just as bad as Wade, but you got lucky, and you know about bending, and were permitted to learn and use your firebending power. I personally believe that levels 3 and 4 should be eradicated and taken over by 5, 6, and 7. You have an extra responsibility to not let anyone find out about bending on a lower level. Me being a level 6, means I am one level from the top, and I call most of the shots on Slaena. If I should commit murder, oh well" Yang continued, saying the last words nonchalantly.

Meilin started to look around him, identifying the only exit was behind him. Yang noticed his, stopped pacing, and placed his open palms on the workbench.

"Don't worry, I am not going to kill you. I feel generous today, I will give you time to redeem yourself. Find Wade and end him. No level 1 or 2 can find out about bending. If they all knew, there would be chaos. The government will not tolerate this, so I am not saying anything, but if you do not kill him, you and he will be."

Yang sighed and turned around, facing the cluttered counter.

"Good bye Meilin." Yang said as a cue for Meilin to leave.

Meilin promptly left. Letting him live was really out of character for Yang, but he had a good day, and just wanted to forget about the whole mess. It was, after all, only one man.

Jonathan was already in the room with all the books, apparently tidying up and dusting.

"Gena! Good morning. Have a look around. All these books are the knowledge of bending and the avatars, there's also a bookshelf with cases of scrolls various bending scrolls."

The room looked like it ended, but the end actually branched off at a very deep angle on either side. The wall connecting on the other side was the culprit to giving it the appearance the room ended. Both hallways were also lined with books on both sides all the way to the end.

"Wow! So many books. Jonathan, I had no idea there would be so many."

"You should have seen the collections before the government ordered them all to be destroyed."

Gena's mouth fell open.

"Yes, it wasn't made a public announcement, but the president at the time issued the order to Dai Li agents to rid of every book they could find concerning bending or the Avatar."

"No way they went for that Jonathan, I mean, weren't they were benders too."

"The Dai Li were always a shady bunch of soldiers. They were willing to do anything they were ordere to do, as if they had no conscious; plus, the government had their own set of information, and their own libraries. They went through homes and public libraries while no one was there, and ransacked everything they could find on every continent. It was horrible."

Gena's expression did not change, only her stance, supporting herself against a bookshelf.

"I remember that too. It wasn't a pretty sight when they burned the books. As Jonathan said, not publicly, but in a secret underground lair like this one. My great grandmother 4 times was a part of the government, until she found out about this. She couldn't see it going anywhere good, so she left." Crytia said, walking up to the room.

"Good for her." Gena replied.

"It may have sounded like a noble suggestion on her part, but then after that her and other benders were blind to the government's ambitions." Crytia explained further.

"Don't lean too hard Gena. A lot of these books are centuries old, and the seams are only just holding the books together." Jonathan offered.

Gena obeyed.

"My grandmother then started the original society. Like I said, she didn't know what the government was up to, but if they were burning books, it couldn't be a good sign for the future. When the Dai Li went to steal books to burn, my grandmother and the other society members, too, went to work taking as many books as they could. With permission though, she added." Crytia continued.

"I bet that was a fun conversation. Oh hey, the government wants our books for some unknown plot, and is burning them." Gena mocked.

"They had loyal followers, and they knew people that trusted them, and so on and so forth. All these books were from the families and friends of the original society members. Some were made afterwards, but not many benders since wrote books, sadly."

"Wow! So why did you and Jonathan have to resurrect the society? I thought you said you and he started it."

Gena was now sitting on the floor with Crytia, and Jonathan followed suit.

"My grandmother left the government unnoticed, but she didn't stay unnoticed. The government didn't want any leaks of what happened. The book thieving was chopped up by the media as random robberies, and since the media had control over the population – as they still do – every word was believed; even though all evidences said otherwise. They found my grandmother and her followers, and ended their lives in heinous ways. The government had the event televised to take the citizens' minds from the book thieving, and offered the society up as the ones responsible for a lot of the book thieves."

"Wait, okay, I can believe most of that, but what about the society members, they could just shout the truth." Gena said, disbelieving some of that.

Crytia got up, and went down the left hallway to pick out a book from the lower shelf of one particular bookcase.

"This entire book is about my grandmother and her society. It says later on towards the end, that opiates were used to drug and keep them all mollified."

"Also, read this book, it will be a good starter on some of the past Avatars that never got to know who they really were. You are lucky Gena to have found us."

The book was a dark red, and surprisingly thin; about only 800 pages.

"Wow. So how do we know anything about my past lives at all after the last Avatar?"

"This isn't the whole list. Some kept diaries, gave up confidence for a ghost writer, and one even kept a blog. I think he passed away in a mental institution just before you were born." Jonathan offered.

"Yeah, Duncan Miller. His blog is creepy."

"Read his section first, there are some entries we got from a diary he kept along with his blog that weren't in the blog itself." Crytia suggested.

"I will. Thanks."

Crytia left, and Jonathan went down a hallway to clean some more, and Gena remained on the floor, to begin reading the books.

Wade knew he had to leave, if he returned, something bad would happen to him. He had already left the Yang Shi Enterprises site, and knew he couldn't go to a church, they wouldn't believe him. He knew he couldn't go to some kind of coven; they would believe him, but preach about their religion. That left him to seek out some kind of monastery type place, a temple of monks. Fortunately, he knew of a place.

Wade's bicycle stopped in front of a building of old architecture, and towering above the surrounding buildings.

"Here we go." He thought.

He entered the temple, and found it empty. He kept walking through what seemed to be the sanctuary with a door on either side of the far wall. He didn't want to intrude on anyone, so he decided to leave, and look elsewhere.

Cough

"There must be someone here." He thought

He walked back toward the far wall, and took the door to his left. A monk met him as he opened the door.

His livid robes worn like a toga, high cheekbones, and bald head, told him he was in the right place, and that is who he needed to speak with.

"Yes?" The monk asked.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to intrude. I just had a question, and somewhat in fear for my life…maybe." Wade sounded a little unsure of himself.

The monk motioned Wade out of the doorway to follow him. They walked through a long hallway with rooms littering the walls sporadically.

"I will take you to Tai, another monk, second only to the enlightened one here at the monastery."

"Oh, they call it a monastery, I wonder what the difference is form a temple?" Wade thought, but never asked, he didn't want to offend.

They got to a doorway nearing the end of the long hallway to the left.

"Please wait out here, while I talk to Tai."

The monk entered the room, and left Wade to his thoughts.

Wade knew not what to expect. He thought Tai was an interesting name for a monk. Maybe he recently converted or something.

"Monk Tai will see you now." The monk said.

"Thank you." Wade mentioned before walking through.

The room was more spacious than what wade had thought. A desk greeted him first thing, followed by bookcases lining the walls, and many books decorating the carpeted floor.

"Yes, I am Tai, how may I help you?"

"Earlier I was hit. No, he breathed fire on me. Okay, sorry, I got it together now. Is it possible for someone to control fire?" Wade eventually asked after fumbling some.

"Yes, there is." Tai said matter-of-factly.

Wade wasn't expecting that response.

"How?" Wade said with widened eyes, and eager ears.

Tai went on to explain bending to him. That bending was freely available to those who can control their chi, and use it to their advantage over one of the 4 elements. Wade was so enthused, yet even more scared that other people have this ability.

"Does everyone have this ability? Well, I obviously do not, I didn't even know it existed until now. But do a lot of people have this ability?"

"Yes, but like me, there are people who have the knowledge, but are nonbenders."

Wade started to think of the possibilities of being able to bend himself, and he wouldn't be scared.

"Could I be a bender?"

"I do not know, but judging by your gray eyes, you would be an airbender. Your eyes are amazingly clear too, you probably can learn to bend." Tai said, peering into Wade's eyes.

Wade's heart started to race at the thought of this, and his skin filled with goose bumps.

"Wow! Wait, how come you are so forthcoming with all this?"

"The knowledge is everyone's knowledge. It has been kept secret for a long time by people in power."

"So, why not tell everybody, and beat the people in power?"

"We would then be targeted, and made into martyrs. Plus not everyone would believe. They would hate us, hunt us down, and further distort the truth to make the world even more controlled than it already is. History is full of these martyrs. There is one very popular man that all of this happened to, but you are not here to discuss our beliefs. That is why we carefully choose people to tell the truth to, and honestly tell everyone who asks." Tai further explained, half sitting on his desk.

Wade thought about this for a while. It made sense, but still infuriated him.

"I understand, but I cannot sit idly by. If I become a martyr, so be it, at least I will have died for a reason, and be remembered."

"By who?" Tai asked.

Wade thought instantly of Brak, and imagined him clearly, but didn't answer Tai.

"You cannot even bend, how would you protect yourself?" Tai continued.

Wade admitted to himself that he was going in half-cocked. He had just learned this knowledge, and already he was ready to take on the world of usurpers. He was armed with knowledge, but no physical armor. He realized he had to calm down.

"I am sorry. You are right. It just makes me so damn mad."

"I know. I will take you to a place where you can get some training, and choose your own path."

Gena read through the first book. It was a much smaller book, and was all handwritten. She read as Crytia's grandmother started off in the government, started the Avatar society, and eventually met her untimely death. She was a brave woman, and died to keep the truth available to all continents. Her name was also Crytia; so Crytia was named after her grandmother.

"She is definitely worthy of the name." Gena thought aloud.

Gena opened the next book, and flipped to the section on Duncan Miller. The pages were typed, and matched the blog to a tee. Then she got to the last entry.

"A woman I didn't even know came to me in another dream before I left for the hospital. She said her name was Gena, and she was going to be the next Avatar, that I could rest peacefully now." It read.

Gena dropped the book.

"What? How could this be? He knew of me before hand? Did he time travel? Did Raava have something to do with this? Did I time travel?" Gena said, more confused than ever.

**Author's note****:** Okay, wow. This chapter was really long. I started this chapter last night, but already had over 4,000 words, and was too sleepy to continue, let alone post. I just got all caught up in Brak and Wade's story.

The book Gena was reading about Duncan Miller's blog is available at. .

I wrote it the best that I could, and true to the story. I think I will write an excerpt of Crytia's journal too.

I know I will probably lose some fans over this chapter. Making a character gay, and introducing a new gay character. I have been all over the map myself; going from one belief system to the next, my own sexuality changing, travelling around the U.S. It is my belief that a good author can experience different ways of life, and be able to comfortably put it all down on paper, or in my case, Word, lol. Fellow authors and fans will disagree. To them, I apologize, but I feel differently.

This chapter is longer than most. I got carried away with Wade's story, and wanted to include everyone, later chapters, I will be focusing on some characters more than others, and some not at all. I mean, now, I have Gena, Sare, Jonathan, Crytia, Tai, Lee, Brak, Wade, Yang, and Meilin (pronounced may lin, or maylon). So, hopefully you enjoy. Oh, and there won't be any steamy scenes in my fic, I am just going a different direction is all. I will be writing an excerpt from Crytia's journal – as I stated above – or doing chapter 9 tonight. I like to keep something going each night.


	9. Chapter 9: To Lament With Love

**Chapter 9: To Lament With Love**

Just turning 55 and not yet having a full head of gray hair, Yang didn't look any more than 40, and he felt great. He kissed his wife goodbye as she was leaving for work, and he was going for a morning jog. He didn't go every morning, but he had to keep up appearances, plus he needed some time to think.

Brak weighed heavily on his mind since he offered the new job to him. He really didn't want the runt in his life, but he didn't want the Avatar's numbers to grow either. He knew that Brak hated her, but to what extent? How much did Brak actually remember from that night his parents died?

He had on his jogging pants, a matching bandana on his head, and a loose fitting t-shirt. He looked like an 80's jogger. He slipped on his tennis shoes, and out the door he went, and his memories began to flood his mind with every beat of his heart.

He remembered Brak's father, the moment he began to work for him. He was the cream of the crop, a great money maker with his ingenious ideas, and no disciplinary issues. He was always on time for work, always looked like he wore a brand new suit everyday, and a great people person. The company stocks would fluctuate like with every other company, but more often on the rise after hiring the man. This was a man that was one day going to inherit Yang Shi Enterprises. Someone that he wouldn't mind them renaming the company after him. Sure, Yang built the company from the ground up, but if the man he hired turned the company around, and got him more investors to see their way of thinking wanted to change the company name after he was dead and gone, he would not stand in the way of progress. That is how much he trusted Charles.

Soon, Charles was show up late occasionally, but his work never faltered. Once this became a semi habit, he brought Charles in to talk.

"Charles, you know how I feel about you right?" Yang said, leaning against the back of a chair.

It was Yang's same office, but arranged a bit differently. It was before Yang added the sofa for his shrink and advisor.

"Yes, Yang. I've just had some trouble sleeping is all, I will try harder." Charles admitted.

"I trust you with everything, and I trust that you will find out and remedy whatever your body is going through. Have you seen a doctor?"

"No, Anna and I have been going to meetings every night, and sometimes these meetings would take us out past midnight."

"Maybe leaving earlier than her would help if she insists on staying?" Yang offered.

Charles thought about it for a moment.

"I mean, are the meetings that important for it to affect your job?"

"No, Yang. I will find some way around this." Charles answered.

His work performance gained some, but his tardiness stayed around the same. It was around 6 months later that Charles was called back into the office. Yang didn't say much, because he saw the clarity and slight animation of Charles' pupils, which could only mean one thing. He was a bender, and knew it.

There was no way around it. Benders could not exist in this world. That was the old world. Time for a change. Some of Yang's investors were influential people in the government, if they found out, Yang would be without a job, or worse. This could not happen. If he was a bender and his wife was or were not, there would be a medium to high probability that their son, Brak was too.

Level 3 citizenship took too much time and effort to pull through; time that Yang did not have, and certainly not without his best employee. Even though Charles was slipping in one department, he was still the best employee by far.

"You have your 2 week's notice, Charles." This was all Yang could think of doing. He would have to work longer hours to look for a perfect candidate.

Charles' eyes grew big, and went back down, and he drew an ironic smile on his face.

"You beat me to it boss." Charles chimed in.

"How's that?" Yang sounded somewhat more displeased.

"We found out recently that our child, Brak, needed some special attention, so we would have to move out of town."

Yang knew what this meant after seeing Charles' eyes their son was a bender. He had to go. Benders that were not level 3 citizens and above had no place anymore in this world.

"How does Brak feel about leaving his friends?"

"We haven't told him yet. We had an expert come in to take a look at him, and our suspicions were true, and we all have to move."

Charles left the office to get back to his work.

Brak too was out running. Like most times, he was thinking of his parents. Lamenting, like he could do something about the past, change it so they could be happy like a family again.

He remembered the day clearly when his father came home with news.

Charles came in the door to the house that Brak now lives in. He set his briefcase down, loosened his tie, and Anna came in to the sitting room to greet her husband.

"Well, baby, Yang beat me to it. He let me go before I had time to put in for my resignation." Charles looked her into the eyes and said before she could greet him properly with a kiss.

"Why?" Anna inquired.

"I guess because I have been late all the time, but my work never suffered. I always gave my all, and continued to make money for him."

"It all is odd. We talked about you resigning anyway. So, problem solved." Anna said as she turned around to return to finishing supper.

"That's what I love about you babe. You don't sit and dwell over things like that. I have a hard time letting go."

"I love you too sweetheart." She replied with gusto.

A sixteen year old Brak was sitting on the sofa doing his homework when his father walked in. He remembers reading about the early settlers in the clump of nations before Slaena was a habitable continent, because of his mother's recent rants and sending letters to the principal of his school to take him out of that class. She would never give a clear reason why though. He always thought she was totally weird for that.

"You lost your job dad?" A curious Brak asked.

"Yes, Brak, but my last day isn't for another 2 weeks."

Father sat beside son draping his arm on the couch in Brak's direction.

"We're going to have family time tonight after supper. We have some special news for you."

"Can't we do that during supper, I have loads of homework to do, and plus I want to hang out with my friends some too."

Charles laughed a little that Brak would use the homework excuse.

"Might as well leave the homework excuse out, and just say you want to play with your friends."

Brak blushed a little, and began twiddling his pencil on his history book.

"Supper everyone." Anna shouted.

"Great babe, I'm famished."

Nothing changed with Charles after that conversation with Yang. He was still late on occasion, and he still worked hard.

It was Charles' last day of work. Yang and Charles shook hands, and Charles left the building for the last time. Later on that night, Yang went to an empty warehouse building way outside of Yang and Charles' locale.

"I may not know where they meet, but I now know they come this way."

Yang had been following Charles and his wife nightly since he found out Charles was a bender. Around this place, Yang would always lose sight of them. He had every government resource out looking for them or the headquarters. Everything Yang could get his hands on, Pulse Seers, aerial support, Dai Li agents, everything short of inspiring martial law on the citizens of that town, and nothing came up.

Note::Pulse seers is like what Toph and Lin Beifong could do with their bare feet. Stomp on the ground, and with the vibrations or pulse that emanated from their stomp, they could actually see everything underground.

Brak and his family had a nice glass table they sat at every night, and discuss their day's activities while eating.

"Well, Brak has requested that we combine family time and supper." Charles began.

"Well, let's not let this happen often. It's important that we do the way we always do, but it is an exciting time for our family, so I will allow it." Anna added.

"So, what's the news?" Brak asked a little impatiently with suspense doubling every minute.

"Well, you know how your mom and I go out at night as of late?"

Brak nodded with a mouthful of his mom's famous spaghetti and meatballs.

"Well, we have been going to meetings at the Avatar Society. It's held at a man's house named, Jonathan."

"Wait, the house's name or the man's name is Jonathan?" Brak tried to crack a joke.

"You can't come up with something more original?" Anna rolled her eyes and chuckled.

Brak took another heaping mouthful.

"Do you know what the Avatar Society is Brak?" Anna asked

"Not really" Brak said with a mouthful of food.

"Well, we have plenty of time to talk about things. You seem to be in quite the hurry. Why not slow down?" Charles continued.

"Can't, have things to do." Brak refused to concede.

"Well, in short, they want to meet with you, and have us live with them." Anna said.

Brak was glad he had just swallowed his food before saying that.

"What?!"

It was night time. Several cars had come and gone down the street of the neglected warehouse. He stood under and lamp post in a non threatening manner to not arouse suspicion so the passersby could see his face, and when Charles did, he would stop and see if all was okay. Murder was different for a bender. Since 99% of the world's population did not know of its existence, murder by bending meant no trails, so it didn't matter who saw his profile, as long as they didn't see his face. Who would believe a billionaire to be out on the streets at nighttime in the cold near a deserted warehouse way outside of town? Nobody.

"Yang? Are you okay? What are you doing way out here?" Charles finally drove by and asked.

Yang noticed Charles and Anna in the front seat, and their son, Brak in the backseat asleep. The street lamp flickered in and out fast for a second, and just died. It was like something somewhere wanted this murder to take place.

"Yang?" Charles asked again.

In a swift decisive action, Yang drew the water of a nearby puddle, formed it into a pair of spears attached to his hands, and impaled Charles and Anna through the car door. Since Charles was only holding the brake to stop the vehicle, he was able to use that to drag the car, creating skid marks.

Yang lifted Charles' lifeless body from pressing the brake, flipping the car several times with the unfrozen water, and eventually crashing it into the warehouse building. He then loosed the water and called it back into a puddle where it all originated before freezing the liquids in their engine to make it look like the extreme cold caused a violent accident.

Everything looked perfect. The car skidded toward a brick half gate surrounding the warehouse building which caused it to flip, and crash into the warehouse. As an afterthought though. He did remember seeing flames lighting up the backseat, so he was a bender after all. Yang was proud of himself diverting a disaster. Now to save his company.

Brak remembers nothing of that night. He had only remembered that he went to sleep, and woke up the next morning. Only to hear that his parents died in a fatal car crash.

The news hit him hard. For the past 3 months, they had changed. They were loving and caring again, and supported each other again. Something Brak hadn't seen in them since he was just a toddler. All he could do is just stare blankly at whatever was in front of him. He wouldn't speak, acknowledge anyone, or respond to anything.

He was even taken to the hospital where he actually woke up from the car wreck, and nothing could be found wrong with him, but since he was not responding well to anything said or done to him, there was a high possibility of repression. He would only remember bits and pieces of everything from that night, and he would put pieces of his memory together in the wrong places. It was a miracle though that he was completely unharmed.

The scorch marks were found in the car, but not looked into extensively. He forgot he had firebent, that he left with his parents, and took the hospital memory and placed it in his memory as going after he heard the news about his parents. He's had the same false memories for 8 years.

For Yang, 8 years later, he had to have government people behind the scenes making the decisions for his company, because he could never find a replacement for Charles. That wasn't what he had in mind. He was on their side, but he knew they had a past of betraying people, but he was still going to remain loyal. Because of the government, he had a great life, and would do anything to keep that great life.

When Brak went to work for him, he knew instantly who he was. He favored his father a lot, and on many levels, Yang missed Charles, but he did what had to be done. The boy was a firebender, but didn't have the heart to kill him too. Maybe he could induct Brak, and start him off as level 3, and let him climb the ranks. He would have to see.

**Author's Note**** ::** I got this chapter idea from a fan, KaseyLyndal on . She was a great help with some of the problems I was facing. I wasn't even planning on Yang killing Brak's parents, but at her suggestion, it fit wonderfully. Thanks KaseyLyndal.

Oh, and if the last section seemed a little bit out of place, it's because I wrote that entire section first, and then added Brak's memory later.


	10. Chapter 10: Journeys' Beginnings

_**Author's Notes**_**:** Okay everyone, before you read this chapter. I want to let you know that Crytia's grandmother's diary is online now. . in case the link did not display on this site it is avatar . myand . us / crytiadiary . htm It's just an extra bit of the story, I thought about writing, that I thought would be cool to some readers. Remember, e-mail me with any comments or criticism gatene2k3 or just message me on here.

**Chapter 10: Journeys' Beginnings**

While Yang and Brak were remembering their shared past, Gena, Sare, Jonathan, Crytia, and Lee were inside the catacombs deep into the Earth known as the headquarters of the Avatar Society.

Lee had already fed the animals, worked the kinks out of the water stabilizer that Sare mentioned, studied animal DNA in his and Tai's lab, meditated, and began fixing lunch for everyone. Tai and Lee both had every move of everyday planned out to a tee, and were excellent with time management. They never seemed to miss a beat despite what happened throughout the day. Gena admired this, and wanted to learn, but never asked for help for fear of messing with their schedule. The idea and reasoning rang true in her own head, but still knew her thoughts and reality did not connect at any point.

Crytia and Jonathan were still working on the library maintaining the books, the bookshelves, and keeping moisture from ruling over the old books. For that, they enlisted Sare for help as he was a waterbender. He may have flubbed a few times, but became a master at the repetitive task.

"So tomorrow, I go to the spirit world to learn more about each of you." Gena said aloud while in the statue room.

She travelled throughout the room touching each statue as if trying to get a feel for them. She started with the latest fully realized Avatar Senka, the airbender Avatar before him, the firebender, the earthbender, Korra, Aang, Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, Yangchen, and continued on through thousands, each having a nameplate at the base.

"There's so much to know. Do I have to know each of you?" Gena said as if one could speak stopping shortly after Avatar Yangchen.

"Avatar Korra lost a great battle to the spirit of chaos, Vaatu, and with it, all the past memories of each Avatar was forgotten with her separation from Raava. Korra survived, and eventually won the war with Vaatu and his host, a power hungry waterbender, Unalaq." Lee happened to pass, eavesdrop, and point out Korra.

"So why do I need to know anything about them?"

"Anything's possible Gena. Remember that."

Gena sat on the floor against a far wall from the statues not facing her, but the entrance to the room. She started to reminisce about the times that she had apparently waterbent, airbent at the club that one night, and just yesterday, earthbent with Sare. She's never controlled an element before. Was it because of being in contact with Raava that allowed her to start bending, or having the knowledge that bending existed? Then her mind floated over to Raava's last words about not being able to bend at all, even on accident.

Lee came back across her, and pointed out Avatar Kuruk.

"Even though he was a waterbender, you have the most in common with Avatar Kuruk than you do with any other we know the personalities of."

"How so?"

"Avatar Kuruk lived in a time of peace. The once four nations didn't need him for anything. He mastered the elements as he was supposed to, but he didn't care about anything. He had his life, and the woman he loved, and he was set more or less being a lazy Avatar."

Gena heard the speech that Lee had just given, and raised an eyebrow.

Lee had seen this, and added to his spiel.

"His greatest recorded regret was that he wasn't aware of the danger, and highly underestimated the spirits. The woman he loved was more or less killed by a spirit. Her face was stolen."

Gena's eyes widened, and she was then standing against the wall at Lee's conclusion.

"Yeah, that kind of sounds like me. I wanted nothing to do with Raava. I thought she was a hallucination, or maybe that I was going crazy. This life chose me, so I will see where it takes me."

"Once you bond with Raava. It is a made decision. You will be letting chaos back into the world."

Lee was inside the room now, and was standing in front of the statue of Avatar Wan, as if remembering his story. His statue was in the back of the room, away from the other Avatars, which were on different levels, sorted by century. Gena was behind him.

"So, I shouldn't bond back with Raava?" Gena asked leaning against a statue.

Lee looked away from Wan, and back to Gena, took a deep breath as if thinking of what was the right thing to say to her.

"The world is in dire need of remembering its past. Corrupt men have taken over the people, forced a false past onto the people, and made the people lazy, not wanting to learn of the real past. They have done a good job of it too."

"That sounds like a headache right there, too many details at one time. So, the skinny of the situation is that I need to choose the lesser of two evils to solve one problem, and yet, letting loose a potentially bigger problem into the world. There would still be corrupt men and women out there, along with Vaatu."

"It doesn't sound like a good plan, but it is the only one we have come up with so far." Lee admitted.

"As far as the corrupt men and women, we would have you again. As long as you do not die in the Avatar state again, the world will not fall into these dire straits again. " Lee continued.

"You know? Tai has been gone since yesterday to the temple." Crytia sated the obvious.

"So? He's been gone longer, you know?" Jonathan replied.

"Yeah, but he said he would be back last night." Crytia said as she dusted off another book after Sare pulled out any moisture it held.

"You seem to be getting the hang of waterbending quite well, Sare." Gena said after she made her way out of the statue room, and over to the library.

Sare blushed, and started on the next book that Jonathan held out before him.

"Yeah, I am getting it. I can only do the basics." He said, feeling somewhat modest.

"The octopus stance and move in itself, is not basic." Crytia rebutted, taking the book from Jonathan.

Sare blushed again. "I was barely holding the limbs up in the air. It was by coincidence…"

"Coincidence? Okay, you just keep thinking that. I will not explain things again." Jonathan said, somewhat heated, and grabbed the next book.

Sare was then silent. He should have known better, but his confidence wasn't built up yet. He knew he had to force himself, but that in itself was hard.

"It's okay, we're going to learn together." Gena said, trying to lift the mood. Besides, all of her accidents were just that, accidents.

Gena changed the subject. "Crytia, I noticed one thing about your grandmother's Diary. You said she was your great, great, great, great grandmother, but she was more like your tenth or more great grandmother, since it was in the 1500's." Gena counted on her fingers.

Crytia stopped dusting for a moment, and looked at Gena quizzically. She smirked, and chuckled a little.

"Yeah, well, I didn't know how many greats, I just took a wild guess."

Crytia was silent, and staring at the ceiling of Earth, recounting her own past.

"I think fourteen is more accurate. I am not that great with my own lineage, as I just started to learn from all these books. That boy from the end of the diary, the one that had to give the message to my other grandmother; he is actually one of my uncles, and one of Jonathan's grandfathers." Crytia had explained.

"Great, more history." Gena rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, not saying it's not interesting, I have already had an overdose of history for these past few days." Gena felt the need to explain.

"Hey everyone, I am going to take a break for a bit, I'll be right back." Sare announced.

The history lesson of lineage reminded him of his mother and father. His mother being a history professor at a local university, and his father being equally a history buff, but more into the religious side of history. He whipped out his cell phone, and dialed the number for his parents, still remembering the warning the other society members gave him about calling people.

"No more than 5 minutes." Sare remembered Jonathan warning.

Jonathan warned while the others were saying not to use the phone at all. It was still the day time, but it was the weekend, so they should be home.

The phone rang a few times.

"Hello?" A female's voice sounded in his ear. It was his mother's.

"Hey, it's me, I just wanted to…" Sare started.

"Haha, gotcha! This is just a recording. Don't be so heated, it's history now. Get it? Leave us a message, and one of us should call you back, unless time travelling becomes possible, and our future selves come to visit." Sare's mother said in an upbeat attitude prior to the extra-long beep at the end.

"Hey, it's me. I just wanted to let you all know that I am still at my friend's house. We have made some long term plans. So I may not be coming back for a while. I will keep in touch when I can. Love you!"

Sare said in a slower and more calculated voice, trying not to hurry, and make it sound like it was a decision on a whim. He knew they would understand, and not try to stop him. Maybe not even call.

His ringtone sounded, and looked at the caller ID. It was his mother's cell phone.

"I always knew there was more to life than struggling and just getting by!" Wade exclaimed to Tai.

They were in the main room, still at the temple. They were getting ready to leave, when the main doors opened and closed. It was Lee.

"Ahh. Wade, this is my brother, Lee. Lee, this is a new member, Wade." Tai introduced them to each other.

Lee looked at wade with a little confusion. He didn't look all distraught like anyone else they had told the truth to.

Wade took one look at Lee and realized they were identical twins, and not just because of their shaved heads, and nearly matching outfits.

"He is not like the others. Wade seems rather excited about the…well…everything. Maybe a bit zealous for someone just starting out, but he accepts reality quickly." Tai felt the need to explain upon reading his brother's facial expression.

"Well, can he bend?" Lee hesitated for a moment, looking wade over, from his slender build to his gray eyes, and ultimately to his salt and pepper hair.

Lee noticed a half glow in Wade's eyes. This made his brother's response not surprising.

"We don't know. He has the glint of a bender, but it's weak."

"Yeah, I witnessed bending, ran from the scene, and wound up here at the temple." Wade explained, complete with busy hands.

"Monastery" Tai and Lee corrected Wade.

"Sorry, yes, Monastery." Wade corrected himself

Lee leaned against one of the columns inside of the sanctuary, as if preparing for a story.

"So, you said you witnessed bending?" He asked Wade.

Wade had already told this story once today, but didn't mind repeating himself, but wondered how many times he would have to do so. He cleared his head of such thoughts, and began to recount the events.

"I was working for Yang…"

"Yang Shi Enterprises" Lee butted in.

Wade stopped and stared at Lee. He didn't consider the interruption rude, but waited on Lee to add more to it.

"We have had our eye on Yang and his employees for quite some time. Sorry, Wade, please continue." Lee finished with folding his arms, and listening intently this time.

"I made a mistake, and didn't do a job up to par with the company, and my immediate supervisor got mad, and shot fire from his mouth, and looked as though he was about to turn it at me. Until Brak showed up." Wade had continued, showing slightly more care and feeling with the last sentence.

"He seems to have a thing for this Brak guy. I've done some research, and his parents were actually in the society until they met an untimely death some years ago." Tai offered.

"Maybe, but Brak didn't witness the actual magic, bending, whatever. He thought it was all an accident. Like something had exploded and caused the fire." Wade excused.

Lee stood against the column, thinking hard on the subject.

"I'll stay here with Wade a little while, maybe another day, to get some things sorted. While you go back with the others." Lee said after thinking on the subject.

It is true that Lee wasn't so trusting, not just by his brother's feelings either, but by his own experiences. Lee also thought that Tai was always a little too trusting.

Lee noticed the look on his brother's face. Almost a face of hurt mixed in with some confusion; just a blank stare.

"You're missed out there, Tai. You've been asked about." Lee continued, staring back with a definitive look.

Wade could tell some tension, and could also tell it had something to do with him. Did Lee not trust him? He could understand the point of view, and decided not to say anything, but knew he had to be extra careful to remain in the city.

Tai nodded, and left promptly out of the front double doors.

"My brother's a little too trusting Wade." Lee started, leaning forward from the column, and began to walk towards Wade.

"I am not saying you are a threat to us. I believe your story, but you've caught on a little too quickly to our way of life." Lee finally got to the point.

"I always knew there was something more to life…"

"Did you?" Lee interrupted, now pacing around Wade, looking him over, trying to get a feel for the newcomer, or potential newcomer.

"I am assuming my brother has explained to you about bending, about the government, and the world's past."

"Yes." Wade answered bluntly.

"That's exactly why I didn't say anything about staying here. I knew you had to be sure." Wade continued. He failed at helping Lee believe he wasn't with Yang, the government, or anyone else trying to keep the current world order intact.

"Brak, m'boy!" Yang shouted across many people inhabiting the busy outside section of the place where Brak was having his photo shoot at.

Yang waded through the many people. Some of them bowed, saying "Mr. President." He ignored most, and gave the others only a curt nod.

Yang and Brak finally caught up to the other.

"Well, Brak, now that we've closed the distance, I wanted to show you these."

Brak took the pictures. They were very immaculate, and in some ways Brak already rejected them. They made him look a little too good, or a little too fake.

"Cool, I like 'em." Brak stated as he handed the pictures back to Yang.

"I'm glad you feel that way, because my company is giving the opening presentation to the new business industries."

"New business industries?" Brak asked. He had never heard of such.

"Yeah, you know? That new continent they discovered far to the west of here. They're saying that some Columba, or whatever discovered it."

"Columbus?" Brak offered.

"Yeah, maybe. Anyway, they struck a deal with the natives, and have been given prime land to begin industrializing all of it. More land to build houses and such on. It's going to be great! And we're going to get in on the ground floor over there. Of course, I don't know how far on the ground floor. I have to be one of the top, if not the top company travelling there. There are companies coming in from Slaena, and other parts of the clump of nations here. I know I am the biggest company here, and what could possibly be big over there in Slaena?" Yang explained while walking with Brak through the crowd.

Yang fingered through the photographs of Brak, and picked one out of a handsome Brak in a nice black and white suit, looking a little haughty, yet serious.

"We'll use this picture to advertise. It'll be your finest moment yet. Best of all, you'll be moving there. Whatever they decided to call the place, and I'll be back and forth."

Brak felt a little uneasy about this, moving from his parents' old house. That's the only thing he really has of them.

"You know? I had my parents until an early age too Brak. I let my sentimentality hold me back on a numerous of occasions. I finally joined something, finally realizing that I wasn't leaving them behind, I was just leaving behind the thing that kept me rooted in the same life I was struggling in. I still have it all, and I go to visit every once in a while. Just keep in mind, you may be leaving, but you will be coming back." Yang explained in a serious tone. His usual boisterous attitude was left behind.

Brak thought for a moment. How did he know just what he was thinking? Well his parents did die when he was young too, and his dad did work for him. It's just a crazy coincidence.

"So yeah, if I didn't turn down all those opportunities due to my sentimental reasoning, I probably would have never gotten this job. I struggled because of it, but look at me now! I have everything I could have ever wanted, and now, I am offering you the same." Yang continued.

"Yeah, my dad didn't take you up on your offer, and now look at him. I won't make the same mistake. I'm going, Yang."

With a huge clap on the back, and an ostentatious yet sincere, "heck yeah!". They were on their way to a plane that would take them to the offices in Slaena. Where Brak would say goodbye to the house he grew up in, and his friends.

"Yang is a powerful man. He was an irresponsible teenager, blew all his inheritance after his parents' death, but then the government found him, and now he is a very dangerous level 2 citizen." Lee started.

"Level 2?" Wade semi interrupted.

"Levels 4 and 5 do not know anything about bending. That is us. Level 5 are the bottom feeders of the civilization. To the government, they show no promise of anything, and the government feeds off of their hard labor. Level 4 shows a little more promise, but probably will never make anything of their selves, even if they live a decent life. Level 3 shows the most promise out of everyday citizens, but they become turncoats on their own people and keep bending a secret from humanity. They also do the dirty work for the government, and high ranking officials. This is what I believe this Meilin was. Level 2 and 1 are the rulers over humanity. Yang would be a level 2, nothing but a grunt of level 1, but still has considerable power, and very dangerous. Any questions?"

"So, I am a level 5?"

As he asked that question, the doors to the monastery flew open.

"You mean tier 5?"

Both Yang and Brak walked in, and the pair from the society got quiet for a moment.

"What do you know about the tiers of society, monk? Because that's the talk of the Avatar society, and we don't like that kind of talk here in the nations." Yang said, letting loose a little of his mean side in front of Brak.

Lee gave a half bow, and quickly changed his tone to a peaceful one.

"Welcome traveler. I assure you our talk was strictly monastery business nothing at all dealing with the Avatar. Have you come to worship?"

"No, we are just heading to Slaena on some business. We stopped in, because Brak loved the architecture. Apparently, there aren't any monasteries over there where he is from."

At the sound of Brak's name, Wade's eyes grew big, and fell onto Brak's, giving a small smile of joy. The same with Brak, except he blushed, especially after seeing Yang looking at Wade, then looking at him.

"Ohh, why don't you bring him along m'boy?" Yang offered.

"Yes!" Wade piped up, his voice a few octaves higher than normal.

Wade cleared his voice, apologized, and started to blush.

"He can be right with you. I have a few more things to show him." Lee lied, and grabbed Wade by his arm, and led him away to the back, but where Lee could still keep an eye on Yang and Brak.

"Isn't he perfect Lee? That's Brak, the one that saved me from Meilin." Wade started, and then Lee promptly interrupted.

"That's Yang. You've never met him? Your friend is in danger."

"Oh, then I better warn him."

"Bra…" was all Wade could get out before Lee snatched him away from the door.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry Wade, it is the upmost importance that he not know any of this, or he will be put in more danger. We would all be in a lot of danger If anything were said in front of Yang." Lee started before Wade shrugged his arm off and continued to walk out the door.

"Please, Wade, listen. He won't believe you."

This made Wade stop in his tracks. The light from the windows of the monastery lighting up only his shoulder.

"People just don't believe. A man and a woman who had a son named Brak were once in the society, years ago. I never knew them, but hearing his name brought the memory back up."

"Then he will believe." Wade snapped back.

"No, they died, leaving their son everything. They told us – before my brother and I joined – that they weren't going to tell him anything, until they brought him here. There is a chance he knew where he was going, and now hates us because he socializes that night with our society." Lee further tried to plead before Wade took off to do something foolish.

"Look, Lee. I understand what you are saying, but I feel a strong connection with Brak. If he's in danger, I want to be with him, to somehow better our chances at this. I realize I cannot say anything about the society. I won't even bring it up in the slightest, but I will not turn my back on him." Wade announced, but in a loud whisper.

Lee's hand was still attached to Wade's shirt. He let go with some hesitation.

"You are free to do as you will, but I beg you to reconsider. Is your life worth his?"

"As I said. I feel a strong connection with him. I don't know what it is. Love, lust, or something higher."

"Once again, I apologize for trying…" Lee started to apologize again.

"I know, you were only trying to save me. I thank you for it, but I have to follow this hunch."

"Yes, you do. Just be careful, without any formal training, you are very susceptible to anything Yang could dish out, bending or otherwise." Lee warned.

"So is he." Wade countered, and left out of the cramped hallway.

"A glint in his eyes?" Yang noticed in wade's eyes the glint of a bender, albeit, a very small one. This made him smirk, and the wheels in his head turned out something even more sinister.

_**Author's Notes**_**: **Sorry everyone. I know it has been close to two weeks since I have done anything with this story. I wanted to make it somewhat worth it, being the chapter before I plan for Gena and Sare to go to the South Pole. Once again. Don't forget to read Crytia's diary. The link is at the top of this story. Comments and criticism are always welcomed. gatene2k3 feel free to e-mail me, or just leave a comment on this site.


	11. Chapter 11: Traveling Back

**Chapter 11: Traveling Back**

Gena and Sare traveled in a boat, heading towards the South Pole. Jonathan had given him his boat; for Gena and Sare it was a very kind gesture, but for Jonathan, it wasn't a decision, he was more than happy to help the Avatar, and especially to help Sare. The boat seemed to be brand new or rarely used. The seamless wooden deck, the cockpit, the mast, and the living area below the deck were all immaculate.

"You know? The last time I spoke with Raava, she said that I couldn't bend, even if I knew how, without her with me." Gena said aloud, trying to figure it all out.

Gena was sitting on the deck leaning against the mast, and facing the nose of the boat. Sare was walking up behind her as she said that, his footsteps very audible.

"Just because she's the spirit of the Avatar, doesn't mean she knows everything. She could have just made a mistake, a miscalculation." Sare offered.

"Lee told me, that by accepting Raava's light spirit, I am once again releasing chaos into the world." Gena sighed, and then added.

Sare looked stunned.

"How on Earth could she make that kind of decision?" He thought to himself.

"Wow. I do not know if I could make that kind of decision. What decision did you make? I mean, we're still going to the South Pole, so obviously you are accepting Raava, but how did you make that decision?" Sare stammered a little.

"Lee said that the world has gone too long without its Avatar, and regardless of my decision, there will always be bad guys out there, but at least the world would have me to defend it." Gena explained.

Sare was still in awe, and knowing he would have to just trust Gena to make the right decision. After all, living with bending while completely secluded, to him was no life. Plus, he would have to try and find a way to explain to his parents why he no longer had the job at the fruit stand.

"I don't know what kind of help I could be, but if you ever need someone, I am right here, and not going anywhere." Sare offered, sitting down next to her.

"Because I am the Avatar, right?" Gena questioned.

Sare was once again stunned.

"You never spoke to me before I told you and David about my dream that day."

"I've always liked you. Your dream gave me the push I needed to speak to you for a reason."

Gena looked over at Sare with a blank stare for a second, and then looked back out at sea. It was almost like she was going to give a wry smile, but too much was on her mind.

"In any case, I've been alone for a long time, making decisions on my own, and handling my own problems. The thought is sweet and appreciated, but not needed."

Sare decided not to dwell on her words, and just be there for her anyway.

* * *

Gena's words she just spoke, made her remember the time she realized she was alone.

She was 9 or 10 years old. Walking along the cobblestone path she walked all day every day via the empty alleys, the main road, or the side roads. She had just acquired some coins from a very lovely lady, and narrowly missed the notice of a new street policeman trying to keep order on the street by keeping crowds down to a minimum to allow cars and trucks to pass. Letting a policeman see an unattended child, especially a child with no parents, meant she was going to put through the system, and that is something no homeless child wanted. She could take care of herself, and the others could help her too.

"Little lady, are your parents nearby?" A hand touched her on her shoulder from behind and was accompanied by the same voice of the nearby traffic cop.

"I…uh…They are…" Young Gena stammered.

"I am her grandmother." A soft voice came from a passerby.

Gena knew she had to play the part. Even though the cop had never laid eyes on her, she knew he was not stupid. So, she ran up to the older lady, and gave her a hug, and gripped her hand.

The older lady gave a slight chuckle.

"It's okay child, the policeman was only doing his job."

Gena still couldn't help but stare at the ground, and keep a steady grip on the older lady's hand. She figured that the policeman knew the older lady was lying, but decided not to say anything, give a slight smile, and back to his regular job.

"Would you like to come with me little one?" The older lady asked with a smile on her face, looking down to an obviously scared Gena.

"Ouch!" Gena protested with each stroke of the older lady's comb against her knotted and unruly mop of golden hair.

"Hmm. I guess we will have to just cut your hair, because this will take a while, and I've just started to comb it. I'll be right back sweetie."

Gena whimpered a bit. Partially because of the pain and partially because of all her friends she had left behind on that lonely cobblestone street. She knew they would be okay, but she would no longer be there.

Gena looked around the house. To her younger self, it was massive, and to her older self, it was the only house she knew for her entire life. The house was immaculate even back then, but more light seemed to pour in from every window, and it seemed somewhat more new to her.

Another lady walked in the door across the room. The two locked eyes for a moment, and the unknown lady gave a curt bow.

"Hajimemashite." The lady said before making her way over towards Gena, with a pair of scissors in one hand, and a towel in another.

Gena looked at her quizzically. What did she say?

"It's a greeting in my native tongue. It means, nice to meet you." The lady explained with a tiny bit of an accent. Her English was fluent.

Gena wasn't impressed, but she had so much more on her mind.

The lady began to cut, and so did their conversation.

"You know, Alicia is great. She got me out of the street too."

"Really?" Gena asked after a moment.

"Yes. I was a little older than you. I don't know if you know what a brothel is, but they still existed, but only in secret when I was only a teenager. It was done solely off of the internet, but a different type. Almost like a black market internet. There were men and women being sold for one night to the highest bidder."

Gena didn't know what a brothel was, but her life sounded like paradise compared to others being sold.

"What is a brothel?" The young Gena asked, just being curious.

"I wouldn't know how to explain it to you little one. The only way I could think of so you could understand. Is that me and several others would be sold to other people, mainly rich men. That one night was all that it took, to have horrible things done to us."

"Oh." Was all that Gena could come up with.

"Well, my name is Gena." Gena offered.

"Ming." Ming replied with a smile, still cutting Gena's hair.

"You sound proper Gena, where's your folks?"

"I don't know. I don't even remember if I ever knew them." Gena replied, feeling more grief.

Ming finished cutting Gena's hair. They exchanged a hug, and Alicia came back in, and showed her around. Ming did a good job with the hair, but Alicia had to correct nearly everyone that they met that day and other days in public about her gender.

A few short weeks is all it took when Alicia fell ill for her ne'er-do-well family to come along and clean house of everyone but Gena and Alicia, mainly due to Alicia's vehement protests.

Gena and Ming were best of friends when Ming had left, despite the age difference. They hugged, and Ming let her know she was going back to her home nation. Alicia had given her money before she became noticeably ill. It was a teary goodbye, but Gena knew Ming would be happier. After all, they could still write back and forth as Ming gave Gena her new address after a few days as promised.

Then like a punch in the gut, Alicia had died. They only had a few short years together before that day had come. It was Gena's turn to be kicked out. The family didn't care she was just a teenager. The property and the money were all they cared about. Gena was leaving, but was saved before she could leave the premises.

Alicia's lawyer came in to the picture, and read the will. Alicia had stated that a large percentage of her money would go to various family members, and most of her property. Gena was astonished by all of the money, and mostly by the properties she knew nothing of. The last part of her will declared that the remaining percentage of the money and the house would go to Ming and Gena, and no one knew that Ming had gone to another nation.

Alicia's family was upset, and almost didn't leave without a fight, but at the lawyer's request, the police were involved. Eventually, all was calm, and Gena could live her life in peace. As always, there were government officials that would come by and check up on everything, but Gena was always able to play it off as if Ming lived there with her. From these moments on, Gena was completely alone.

Several protests were made to Ming to get her to come back to the house, but Ming always declined, saying she loved it in her hometown, but she always promised to come back and visit one day.

* * *

Sare could tell Gena was deep in thought, and didn't want to bother her. His leg was starting to fall asleep, which forced him to get up from being next to her on the hard and uncomfortable wooden deck of Jonathan's boat.

He made his way to the cockpit, and go over the map with their route marked out. Various electronic devices were available to tell him they were on the right path. After all, over 60% of the world's ocean has been explored, so navigation was at its peak, even more so than technology.

He really couldn't pay attention to all of that. Lee had come back shortly before Gena and he had left on their voyage, and heard Lee telling Jonathan and Crytia about some new boy they picked up from the clump of nations at the monastery. Some guy named Wade, and Lee believed Wade to be a potential airbender. It was exciting news. He violently shook his head, and forced himself to pay attention to their course. He was surprised everything had gone smoothly. No guards, no Navy had spotted them, no pirates, no nothing. It was surprisingly smooth, as if it was unnatural.

Sare looked back at Gena. He was worried about her, but knew he had to keep his distance. She looked like she was meditating this time. It was definitely a time for him to stay put, and not make a sound.

Even though Gena and Raava were not fused again, Gena had some of the powers of the Avatar, as if it were all passed down through the energy of her previous lives. After all, reincarnation, like everything else, is all science. Energy released from the body after death went into another life form. That made the new form the next incarnation. The Avatar's energies always went into another human being, and just like this example, the Avatar was always the exception to nearly every rule, whether it was good or bad.

The only thing that could be described as a spark that eventually formed into a larger comet, formed from Gena's head, and shot up into the sky. Sare was stunned, but knew she was the Avatar, so he would be stunned quite a bit.

* * *

Brak, Wade, and Yang were on a private plane together, on their way to Slaena. Wade and Brak were side by side, asleep, and reclined in their plush, and oh-so-comfortable seats; whereas, Yang was at a table on the opposite end of the plane, running through some figures. Their flight might have been overnight, but it was only a 6 hour flight, and a lot of work still needed to be accomplished before their landing.

Yang had little to no conscious. His victims' screams, pleadings, and last breaths meant nothing to him, and did not haunt him. A mere recount of events that lead to someone's death just brought a smile to his face, and a proud feeling in his heart, as if he were doing the world a favor or justice.

Yang's phone vibrated and rattled the desk. Yang looked over at the phone, and it was a text from a tier one. He knew he had to read and reply.

"Roan, our gb friend is here now. When you have time (which means now) you need to come back to Slaena." Was all the text message said.

"Roan." Yang snickered.

"I am only a few hours away." He whispered to himself while texting.

* * *

**Author's Note****:** Sorry that this chapter also took so long. I'll try to write more as soon as possible. I hope learning more about Gena makes her a little more real for some of my readers, I know it does for me.

For now, stay flaming (in the words of Aang).


	12. Chapter 12: The Things We Do

**Chapter 12: The things we do**

They were about 30 minutes from landing. Wade was the first to be up to start the morning shuffle after staring a minute at the man he believed to be the most beautiful, and according to Tai, needed protection. He remembered Yang was in the same place, and a scowl formed on his face.

The bright light that hovered not far over the table where Yang sat was only bright enough to illuminate that area, and was barely noticeable from his and Brak's seats. Wade had noticed this as he went back towards the bathroom, passing Yang.

Yang noticed Wade didn't even give a nod or a salutation.

"There is a small door leading into a bigger room with a full sized shower in it." Yang explained.

Wade was just going to ignore him, and keep ignoring him, but then thought about that being able to tip Yang off that he did not like him.

"Sorry, good morning and thanks. I just really gotta go." Wade surrendered to his brain.

"So there is. I didn't notice that last night." Wade said to himself as he noticed the not-so-wide door Yang was talking about.

Wade had never been on a jet or airplane before, but according to the movies he had seen; even the restroom itself was easily twice the normal size. He decided to take advantage of this luxury plane, even if it did belong to the enemy.

By the time Wade was done with it all, Brak was already up.

"Man, he's even sexy when he first wakes up." Wade thought to himself staring down to Brak, and grinning at the sight of Brak's unruly mop of hair; looking as if a mattress factory had exploded.

"Oh good, you're out!" Brak exclaimed as he rushed by Wade, barely squeezing between Wade and door as Wade didn't have time to move, and almost slammed the door.

"So Brak tells me that you and he met when there was an accident at one of my buildings back in the clump of nations." Yang began.

Wade walked toward the table and sat down with Yang in the chair Brak was sitting in moments earlier.

"Yeah, it was something like that." Wade responded dryly, trying to conceal some sarcasm.

"I remember the incident, and there were some disciplinary action taken on that Meilin, your old boss. Why did you quit, anyway?"

"Who said I quit?" Wade thought to himself.

He only walked out of the area without a word. Sure, in his mind he had quit, and he didn't show up the next day, but he didn't formally quit. He was left with no choice but to play along, and act like it was all cool.

"You left, didn't finish work that day, and didn't go back the next day. Why? Was it Meilin? He's been reprimanded; there should be no more accidents." Yang knew to make someone nervous; you need to start asking questions beginning with, why, when they were hiding something. This would either make them break, or submit.

The bathroom door swung open, and the usual look of Brak came out of the door way followed by the pleasant aroma of his cologne, which brought another grin to Wade's face.

"Sorry, I didn't know you were waiting on me." Wade offered and stammered a little.

By this time, Wade was straight up in his chair.

"Here, take this back." Wade said hurriedly as he bolted from the chair.

Brak placed a hand on Wade's shoulder.

"Please, sit back down. I'll grab this chair." Brak said with a grin to Wade's blush.

Brak thought Wade's fumbling over his words, and whole schoolboy crush to be cute, and a little charming. He was used to people always hitting on him. Most were female, but they were all just looking for a one night stand. Then there were the ones that wanted a relationship, but he wasn't into that. Wade was just his type, but he wanted to play it cool. He was starting a new life, and actually could have a relationship, but he wanted to make it last, and not rush into anything.

"So cap'n what's on the itinerary?" Brak broke the brief silence.

Yang looked to Wade, then to Brak. Both sitting across from him, staring intently at him.

"They do look like a 'cute' couple, but how to use this to my advantage?" Yang thought before answering Brak.

"Well, I have some things to take care of at my company, and people to meet. No one you have to meet right now. All of that will come in due time m'boy. You and Wade here can go do whatever you two need to do for right now. I will contact you when we are ready to depart."

"Attention Mr. Yang and guests." A man over the intercom blared.

Yang rolled his eyes at the formality, and Wade jumped a little at being caught up Tai's words. Brak laid a hand on Wade's leg and gave him a slight smile. Wade just blushed, it was his only defense.

"We are about to land in just a moment. As a safety precaution, I ask that you take seats, and fasten your seatbelts." The man continued.

They all complied.

"Another flawless landing. Man, I hit the jackpot hiring him." Yang complemented himself.

Brak exited first after grabbing a few of his belongings, and Wade was about to follow suit when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You know? M'boy Brak lost his family a while back. It was a hard loss. He's here to finally bury his past, and move on with his life. It would be an unprecedented outcome if he were to lose someone else close to him. It would also be an outcome he didn't have to face." Yang started.

"What do you mean?" Wade interrupted.

"We both know what you saw the other day. Now, his happiness depends on what you do with that knowledge. Right now, I control his happiness. If you were to do something that could break that control, I would regain it by any means necessary, but let's be realistic. Brak's almost family to me. I don't want to hurt him, and neither do you right?" Yang said while slipping his whole arm around Wade's shoulders.

"I understand all too well. So, what kind of job could I have that would keep me near Brak?"

"You will get your old job back with Meilin, where I can keep an eye out on you." Yang replied, almost evilly.

Wade looked down at a smiling Brak inside the building behind a huge pane of glass, and climbed down the stairs from the plane. He had to think of something, but he had to play it safe for his own sake and more importantly, for Brak's sake.

Now, he also has to find some way to contact the society. If Yang knows that Wade knows. He must have figured out why he was at the monastery, talking about the tiers of society with Lee. He would have to do it as soon as possible. Since he was back in Slaena now, he just had to find where they were. It had to be easier than it felt, otherwise, they would never know, until it was too late.

* * *

Gena felt the rush of being pulled by her whole chest, and before she knew it. She was in a dark void with very little light escaping from tiny holes in the ceiling. The holes seemed to get bigger and smaller. She then realized that the ceiling was alive. It was actually littered with hundreds or thousands of small-bodied entities (she wasn't sure if they were spirits or animals).

She ignored the ceiling for a minute, and looked around. Nothing but darkness, the only light was from above. She stayed in her position, and closed her eyes again.

"Looking for me, young Avatar?" Raava appeared and spoke.

Raava's white body, made everything around Gena visible. She saw that she was outside, with trees surrounding her. She recognized the trees as canopy trees. She moved her gaze upwards, and noticed what she thought were either animals or spirits, were actually the tops of the trees being manipulated by the wind.

"Wow, those trees sure do a good job of keeping the sun out. It's barely visible." Gena commented.

"Yes. If you have not noticed Gena, you are in the spirit world. Each time you visit, you enter at a different point." Raava explained.

"I kind of figured I was in the spirit world, but where in the spirit world am I?" Gena asked, climbing to her feet.

"We are in the middle of a forest. It is said that the Avatar always enters the spirit world at the very spot that mostly imitates his or her situation with life. The real question is, what is dark and gloomy about your life?" Raava explained, turning to Gena.

Gena was looking around, as if finding out that tidbit of information from Raava made the place so much more special and unique, when in reality, It did, for Gena.

"Oh, and to answer your question, Raava, no, I was not looking for you earlier. I was just meditating for guidance."

"And I showed up."

"Yes, we're in the spirit world, I would think you would be near when I appear here." Gena said almost sarcastically, walking around as if looking for something.

"So, back to my question. What is dark and gloomy in your life?" Raava questioned, apparently ignoring Gena's tone.

Gena's back was now to Raava, and taking baby steps away from Raava, thinking aloud.

"The whole Avatar business, it just isn't for me. I take on the role, I let chaos back into the world, then what? The world gets worse? I can't bend anything on purpose. I am in my 20's, and the first time I bent anything, I was barely conscious from alcohol, and then I fainted." Gena simply recounted all of her thoughts to Raava. Hoping Raava could do something…anything.

"Oh! And that brings up a good question. You said I couldn't bend even if I knew how, without you." Gena turned around quickly on her heels, and pointed at Raava, nearly shouting, in a scolding manner, but not meaning to.

Everything was silent save Gena's labored breathing from saying so much in one breath, and being passionate.

"I didn't mean that to sound the way it did, Raava. I know I am the Avatar, I just have so many doubts."

"I know Gena. Your trip to the South Pole will erase your doubts. A wealth of knowledge awaits you, you need only to embrace it." Raava said closing the distance between them.

"But that's not all that is going on in your life right now that is dark and gloomy."

"Crytia, Jonathan, Tai, Lee, Sare?"

"They are all fine. Even Sare, he is watching over your body like a protective groundhog turtle."

Gena chuckled a bit, trying to imagine such a creature, but Raava continued anyway, the two now facing each other.

"Sare explained to you about a newcomer Tai and Lee found, right?"

"Yeah, Wade, I think his name was."

"Yes, him and another boy, Brak are in terrible danger. Brak is a consort to a man named, Roan Shi. The rest of the world knows him by Yang Shi. Roan is a water tribe name; whereas, Yang is a fire nation name. The change was to inflict fear, and a sense of power to those he deemed lesser than himself."

"Brak. Why does that name sound so familiar?" Gena said as she paced a little, saying the name over and over again in a whisper to herself.

"The man from the club that night I airbent!" Gena exclaimed with an Aha moment.

"He hates me though. I was so distraught over being the Avatar, I was saying things at inopportune times, and I had mentioned I was the Avatar." Gena was looking into Raava's eye, giving her an account of what happened.

"His parents were killed by Roan. Brak does not know this currently. As a child, he had abilities that had yet to come to fruition. He knew his parents were going to a meeting with the Avatar society, his parents finally told him after running off in secret for a while. Roan struck their lives from their bodies very methodically to make it look like an accident on the way to said meeting. Brak was in the car they were driving, but Brak survived, and had suppressed all of it, except what his parents were doing in secret for many years. Now, he hates everything dealing with the Avatar. Wade is in love with Brak, and is a member of the society; and Roan knows that Wade knows who he really is, a murderer and value usurper." Raava explained, not moving.

"Brak just needs to be told then." Gena said matter-of-factly.

"Yes, but it has to be done with care. It would be best if he found out on his own. We do not want to add to his grief and hatred towards the society."

"Brak can handle it." Gena said once again with conviction.

"Brak and Wade's destinies are intertwined with yours. They are supposed to aid you."

"How do you know this? Are you psychic now?"

"I have existed for many an age, Gena. Time is only an illusion, and one that Vaatu and I have mastered to live as long as we have, and to never die. Everything on this planet, nay, the universe are all connected to everything else within the spaces in which they thrive. Vaatu and I can see these connections, and that makes me a powerful ally, and he a powerful enemy. No, I am not psychic, I can just see connections, and infer what can happen. Vaatu and I have no power to directly alter the future, nor completely know."

Gena still felt like it was still so much to take in, but she felt like it was all getting easier. Brak's parents were killed by the man he is currently hanging out with and employed by, and he is gay. Well, that scratched him off the nonexistent list of possible future husbands. No matter, there was too much to for her to worry about, than to worry about her love life. Brak and Wade were in danger. What could she do though? She was heading to the South Pole.

"How can I help Brak and Wade?"

* * *

"You know? As much as I am for Gena and all the Avatar stuff, I am bored to tears." Sare said aloud for no one to hear.

He realized that no one was around, and he hadn't even seen so much as a ship hauling huge storage containers.

"I guess I can practice my waterbending. There's plenty of water.

He exited the cockpit, and leaned against a side of the boat with an arm outstretched towards the water. He was remembering the freezing technique that Crytia taught him. He imagined every cell of everything that was in the water being completely still and lifeless. He inhaled a large gulp of air, and heaved a heavy blow.

Nothing.

He tried again.

Nothing.

He then remembered all of Crytia's lessons containing small amounts of water, leading to larger amounts. He then drew out a long bulbous strand of water, let it fall to the boat's floor, and tried again. To his giddy amazement, large icicles formed from the deck, and patches of slick ice formed around them.

Sare was happy, and began to do it again by melting the ice, and making the water dance, and crash into the sea as ice. Before long, he created a huge ice archway ahead of them, and watched as they passed through. He decided to heave another heavy blow, and the ice cracked and turned into powdery snow.

He heard clapping. He turned around, and Gena was back. Half of Sare's face cracked a smile as he saw a snowflake fall on her perfectly cute nose.

"Looks like someone's trying hard to become a romantic." Gena said.

All Sare could do is blush and scratch the back of his head, full of jet black hair while a large stem of ice grew from behind him, and a shape of a heart drew slowly from both sides on the stem's top.

* * *

**Author's Note****:** Hey everyone. This is the second chapter within what? 3 days or 2 days? I just had a writing frenzy today, worse than when I first started the story. I know the bending part at the end with Sare may be a little boring at first, but I believe I wrapped it up nicely. Once again, to all my fans out there. Let me know what you think. I am open to suggestions, questions, and criticism. This may not be the longest chapter I have written, but definitely not the shortest.


	13. Chapter 13: For Love

**Chapter 13: For Love**

**Author's Note****: **This chapter does not contain sex, but it infers sex between two men. So if that bothers you, then simply do not read it.

* * *

Brak and Wade entered his house. Brak hadn't been gone long, so it was no surprise everything was exactly as he left it; cluttered, no organization, a typical man's room.

"Wow Brak…I uhm…couldn't imagine your house looking any other way." Wade stammered a little, careful not to offend.

Brak blushed a little, still keeping busy looking for a few important things. He pulled a duffel bag out of a large stack of papers and various other things, and it all came crashing down onto the floor. He went from room to room, putting different things into the duffel bag.

"Okay, I'm done. You ready?" Brak announced, and finally looked up to not see Wade at the front door.

"Wade?" He said looking around

Finally, he heard another crash, and he turned around in the direction of the noise. Wade was going through some things.

"What are you doing? I'll clean this…mess…just not right now."

"Sorry, I just wouldn't feel right not having some kind of organization going on." Wade said as he got to his feet and brushed off his pants leg.

Brak walked up to him, and put a hand on his white undershirt, palm down.

"Wait until you see the bedroom."

"Oh no, maybe we should just leave it…Oh, yes, let's go…" Wade started before Brak moved in for a delicate kiss on his lips.

It's the first time since his parents died that he felt like he was a part of a family. The little gesture of cleaning up reminded him of happy times, when his parents – particularly his mother – would get on him about keeping things cleaned and organized. They kicked off their shoes, and headed toward Brak's bedroom, while their lips were practically still locked.

* * *

"Good, I see that you have kept this nation under control. No one has discovered bending, no uprisings, and from the looks of it, you have been doing well for yourself." A man clad in all-black professional attire said while pacing in front of a sitting Yang in his own conference room.

"But I know that you know you haven't done this all by yourself. You have people working tirelessly behind the scenes keeping this altogether, and you seem to be only spending your money, and doing what you want to do. Normally, I would say kudos, but these people are not your employees; they are mine and my colleagues' employees. We need them back." The dark haired and fair-skinned man said plainly and not looking Yang in the eyes.

Yang's eyes were huge at this point. So many negative scenarios were racing through his mind making him sweat.

"I would suggest that you drop your extra projects, and work on what is important. Staying afloat. Continuing to be lazy and carefree is not an option Yang Shi, or should I say Roan Shi?" The man said, this time looking Yang straight in the face intimidatingly with a smirk of pleasure.

Yang could not take any of this anymore. A sudden outburst of rage poured out of his mouth.

"You cannot just waltz into my company and threaten me like this. My employees are my employees, and they are very loyal to me."

"Oh really? If you would, kindly step outside, and you will see that you have no more employees left Yang."

Yang, normally calm and cool-headed got up nervously from his chair, and in the same manner walked to the door. He looked left towards his receptionist's desk. He looked across the hall into a meeting room, and into the break room next to his conference room. No one was there. There was no one anywhere.

Fuming, Yang turned around, greeted the man by grabbing him by his suit jacket, and slightly lifting him up against the nearest wall.

"No one takes my life from me! No one!" Yang shouted in his face.

The smirk never left the man's face; if anything, it could now be called a smile.

"Really? Because we just did." The man retaliated. The man once again retaliated, and flipped the situation, using fire as propellant.

The man pinned Yang against the semi melted wall, causing Yang searing pain, and holding a dagger of fire to his throat.

"We know you know who the Avatar is, and you have yet to share this information with us."

"How do you…" Is all Yang could get out before the man pushed Yang further into the wall, and started to burn his skin a little until he smelled burning flesh.

Yang winced at the sudden rush of pain.

"Yang. Don't you know better by now, you cannot keep secrets from the government for long?" The man rolled his eyes and said in a condescending tone.

"So drop your poster boy and his little boyfriend, capture the Avatar, bring HER to us, and you can go back to living your luxurious life."

The man and the government knew the Avatar was a she. How much more did they know? Did they know who she was, and just wanted him to do their dirty work?

"Hey boss, that little coward, Wade hasn't shown up for work yet." Meilin said as he came right on in to the conference room unannounced.

Meilin noticed what was going on, and quickly threw his hands in the air, and the man chuckled.

"Barely a tier 3, I take it? It's okay, I was just leaving." The man said as he shared no more words, and promptly left the room.

When the man let go of Yang, he fell barely an inch as the melted wall had dried and held his suit into place.

* * *

Crytia heard a pound on an earthen wall that held the library in the headquarters. She and Jonathan both turned to see Tai and Lee standing there with plain faces. Crytia laid her books down, while Jonathan climbed from a ladder giving Tai and Lee their undivided attention.

Not a moment too soon that Jonathan successfully climbed down, a huge head came crashing through a part of the wall, knocking down a few bookcases, spilling their contents to the floor. It was identified as a badgermole, sniffed around a little, and stared intently at Crytia with its two blind eyes.

"How many times do we have to go through this? Not in here!" Crytia yelled at it.

The created slinked away, and Crytia performed a few maneuvers that rebuilt and smoothed out the wall.

"Oh what a mess! This will take a while."

Crytia took a deep breath, and said, "I'll have to apologize later. I hate my temper sometimes."

"It probably senses what we have sensed, Crytia. Tai and I have been meditating and noticed that our strings are inexorably intertwined with Yang Shi." Lee started.

"Yes, and the patterns that could arise do not look good." Tai finished.

Crytia and Jonathan were both speechless.

"The boy, Wade, and Yang Shi are together with another young man I met, Brak. He's the one whose parents were killed by Yang, and who thought Brak was the new Avatar. The worse news is that Yang now knows about us. So we cannot be seen topside anymore for right now." Lee explained.

"Unless in dire need." Tai finished.

The badgermole came through the wall again, this time whimpering. The bookcase this time fell at such an angle against the other wall, that the top was only a few inches from hitting Jonathan in the head. Crytia, initially startled by the badgermole's first visit, shaken by the twins' news, and now startled again by the badgermole, took a deep breath.

"It's okay Sasha. I was just surprised earlier. I didn't mean to yell at you."

Sasha was happy, and nudged Crytia on the cheek as if forgiving her.

"Sasha, did you come to warn me earlier about something dangerous that would happen?"

Sasha, the badgermole gave a low grunt and bowed its head a bit to affirm.

"Do you think you could take me to my friends that are with Yang Shi?"

Sasha gave another low grunt to accept.

"Jonathan, please stay with Tai and Lee in case the base is attacked." Crytia turned to the others and pleaded with Jonathan, knowing he would have something to say about being left behind.

"Yes, as usual, I am left with the mess." Jonathan played out exactly as Crytia expected.

Crytia only shot him a look, left the library through the doorway, climbed atop Sasha with a hefty launch from a jutting platform of earth which she created, and with a few loud grunts with matching punches, opened a long pathway even further underground for Sasha to follow. Crytia stopped, and looked at Tai and Lee.

"What about Gena and Sare? Where are they?"

* * *

"In-cred-ible!" Wade said after he plopped down on the bed next to an equally satisfied Brak, both equally out of breath and sweaty.

"You said it babe" Brak replied.

"You called me babe." Wade reported the obvious.

"Yeah, I guess I did."

Wade grabbed his watch, while Brak began to shower Wade with more kisses on his upper torso. Wade grinned a bit with a slight moan, which turned into a louder moan as he noticed the time.

"Ugh, I do not feel like moving."

"Then don't, babe".

Another grin formed on Wade's thin lips.

"We have to, we're already late meeting Yang." Wade finished as he plopped down on the bed once again when he knew he wasn't going to fall on Brak's head.

Brak grabbed Wade's chin, and moved it towards him. They looked into each other's eyes, and Brak gave another kiss.

"I think I may love you, Wade"

Wade whined a little, and forced his way to an upright position.

"We gotta go, Brak."

Brak needed no affirmation. He knew how his man felt about him. They both got dressed on the edge of the bed, and Wade was the first to the bedroom door.

"Brak. I love you too. There is something I have to say to you first."

"Uh oh." Brak said as he slipped on his shirt over his perfect lightly hairy chest that Wade always pined over.

"Please remember that I love you when I tell you this. I knew we were soul mates from the time you saved me from that fire."

Mixed feelings arose in Brak; both a grin and an intent look drew on Brak's face.

* * *

"Sasha, I know you are going as fast as you can, but two of our own are in grave danger." Crytia told the badgermole with urgency as she clutched its fur and pressed her body against its back to keep from falling off.

Sasha acknowledged with a grunt, and sped up.

* * *

"We're both in danger, and it wasn't until Yang threatened me, that I knew we didn't have much time to flee."

"What?" was all Brak could muster at the time.

Brak no longer had mixed feelings, but wondered why Wade would be telling him this.

"What makes you think this Wade?"

Brak was no longer calling him babe. The plan was already going south. Wade was remembering what Lee had told him about revealing the truth to Brak, but after Yang had confronted Wade at the airport, he felt he had no choice.

* * *

Crytia remembered some training about seeing the in the dark and poorly lit places, and concentrated on just that. Her eyes began to glow with a yellowish hue, and she was able to help Sasha bend her way through her self-made tunnel.

* * *

"That day you saved me from the fire. It was no accident. That guy, Meilin, he firebent at me. And according to Lee at the monastery, Yang can do it too." Wade said a little on the slow side, trying not to say the wrong thing.

"Firebent at you? What's that?" Brak was even cute when he was clueless about something.

"Nothing exploded, Meilin created the fire, and was going to use it to hurt me, possibly kill me."

* * *

"Where are we going?" Sare asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Back to headquarters." Gena plainly answered.

"Two of our fellow members are in trouble." Gena followed up.

* * *

Brak felt like his heart dropped to his chest. Not wade, anyone else but Wade; even Yang could say craziness like that, but not the man he loved, the man he just made love to.

Brak was losing control of his legs, and fell onto his bed. He couldn't say anything. Shock was taking over, and he only stared at the wall opposite to his bed. It was like his parents' death all over again; the hurt, the blatant mind-numbing mysticism.

"I came back only because I found out you were in danger. I wanted to be with you. Help keep you safe."

"Get out" Were the only words he could then say, but they were inaudible to Wade.

"I love you, please know that."

"Never come back" Brak said in the same tone, but Wade knew he said something.

"Sorry Brak, what?"

"Get out! And never come back! I HATE you!" Brak said really loud to get the point across.

It was Wade's turn to be in shock. He couldn't mean it, not Brak. Was this what Lee was warning him about? Did he have another choice than to reveal the truth? Keep the man he loved so dearly in the dark from the truth?

"Didn't you hear me? Leave my house, do not come back, EVER!" Brak shouted again.

"Perfect cue" a voice said directly before a long spear of ice came crashing through the closed door, impaling Wade.

The choking sounds and the wide eyed expression of shock from Wade's face was all Brak could see as he remembered a very similar event in the past. Brak could only watch. All he wanted to do was to save Wade. To help the man he truly loved. The ice melted and slinked out of the room.

Brak sat there on the edge of the bed frozen in fear. He then noticed the water moving, and he flung himself at Wade, blood oozing from a blackened hole in his chest.

"Wade, no! Please no! I don't hate you! Please…Please come back."

Tears were rolling down the side of his face, as the words were choked out.

"Wade NO!" Brak shouted.

The door to the bedroom was kicked open, and Yang stepped into the room and around the two on the floor. The water slinking behind him, one end attached to his open palm at his side.

"You BASTARD!" Brak shouted as he lunged at Yang in a failed attempt.

Yang had created a force field of water, stopping Brak's foolish nonbending attempts of revenge.

A slight rumble was heard in the distance, that only grew louder with each second.

"I had such high hopes for you Brak m'boy, just like I had for your father. He had to go and betray me. Now, I have to end you too." Yang ended with the rearing back of his hand like a whip, making the force field collapse, and return to a spear shape of frozen water.

The floor of Brak's house opened up, and swallowed him and Wade. Yang stumbled, almost falling into the hole too, but caught his balance.

Brak and Wade's body fell on top of Sasha, and they took off in the opposite direction making a curve with earthbending, and collapsing the path behind them, so they could not be followed.

Brak didn't know what happened, and didn't care. He clutched Wade's lifeless body, and still cried tears of regret and remorse. As far as he was concerned, he could die too. At least they would be together in death.

* * *

**Author's Note****: **Wow, I had toyed around with Wade's death since yesterday, September 8th, and always wondered how Brak would find out the truth, then it just sort of came together. I didn't feel very close to Wade as a character, and felt like his and Brak's relationship was developing too quickly. I could have made one of them do something really stupid, but this way, I killed 4 birds with one stone (no pun intended). I enjoyed writing Wade, I did, but he just didn't seem right to me; but the scene did make me tear up as I was writing it. I do not know when chapter 14 will be coming out, but I will try soon.


	14. Chapter 14: Requiem

**Chapter 14: Requiem**

This was Wade's first time inside the society's headquarters, and he was no longer breathing. The society definitely felt a big loss this day. A new member who barely knew the truth of the world, and he arrived dead.

Brak still clung to Wade's lifeless body, but was over the crying spell. Crytia and the others gave them their space in the main hall where Sasha left them. Wade's connection to Brak was deeper, but Brak's love was no less strong. The last words Brak spoke to Wade rang in his ears like a bad distasteful song. This couldn't be the way it ended between them, but Brak knew that death was final.

Gena was already back with Sare, and they stood with Crytia and Jonathan in the room with the staircases. While Tai and Lee tended to the animals.

"We do not know any of the details yet. All I know is that I took the badgermole, Sasha, to help me find them before something bad happened. We got there too late for Wade, but Brak, we saved his life." Crytia explained to a wide-eyed and confused Gena and Sare.

"And his name is Yang?" Gena asked.

"Yang Shi. I used to work for him as his poster boy." Brak had finally rejoined the living after some bereaving.

"I know you. You were the girl from the bar that night. Gena, right?" Brak asked.

"Yes." Was all Gena could conjure in her brain as she as still taking it all in along with everything else.

"Brak. I am sure you have a lot of questions, but if you will, please give us some details about all this." Jonathan asked politely.

Brak took only a second, "Yes, it is fine, but I am really lost about all of this. I do know though that Yang Shi is responsible for Wade and my parents' deaths. He has taken so much for me. I will answer your questions though, if you take me to Yang."

Jonathan and Crytia looked at each other, and looked back to Brak.

"There's so much you do not understand, Brak. If you go in Blind…." Crytia started.

"I'll die? I am going to take that chance, I no longer have anything to live for. If there was a visible exit to this place, I would already be gone, but I have a feeling I would need one of you to help."

"Please, Brak, hear us out first before you go and do something rash." Gena pleaded.

"Rash? Had she not been listening?" Brak thought to himself.

"I will let you speak, but do not expect me to listen. I have lost all I could in life. I will risk it all to make sure Yang Shi suffers as they did."

No one dared to mention the obvious, that there was no suffering, they had a quick and painless death. Everyone, except Sare who was barely paying attention. All he wanted to do was practice more of his waterbending with turning everything into ice.

"All that happened was, Wade…" Brak paused for a moment, recounting all the memories. The good, bad, and the worst.

"All that happened was that we were talking, next thing I know Yang busts down the door, does away with Wade. Then this woman comes with a giant rat, and we're here." Brak says, while pointing out Crytia.

Brak was lying. That is not what only happened, but the details were too hard to explain, and too painful.

"Something had to happen, to make Yang do what he did." Jonathan thought aloud.

"Make him kill? There's a good reason to kill anyone?" Brak retaliated.

"That is not what Jonathan meant. Everyone has their own reasons or excuses to do what they do." Crytia offered.

Brak thought back to what Wade had mentioned moments before his death. Yang had confronted and threatened him. About what though? He mentioned that Avatar nonsense; well, what was nonsense to him at the time, perhaps those two are related.

Crytia noticed Brak thinking hard about all of the recent events.

"That is everything?"

"After thinking it over, I guess it is best to tell you that Wade and I fought, shortly before everything happened. He was telling me that Yang had threatened him, and was telling me that all the Avatar hokey exists."

Gena bit her tongue.

"I know what I saw. The ice that impaled Wade." Brak continued and took a deep breath as to not lose to his emotions again.

"To you and that rat maneuvering underground seamlessly. I can see that the element stuff you and Wade mentioned does exist." Brak ended, looking at Crytia then Gena respectively.

Idly standing around wasn't Brak's thing, as he was either sitting on the cold earth ground or pacing.

In the distance a loud screech was heard, followed quickly by a hurried lee rushing up to the men's staircase opposite the others.

"The tigerdillo is giving birth!" Lee shouted doing so.

The others made their way to the entrance, careful not to block Lee's passage back and forth. Tai was in the cage with the mother.

"How did she get pregnant with no male around?" Sare perked up and asked as his concentration lifted with Lee's shouting just a moment before.

"Tai and Lee work with DNA splicing and other things to try and bring these animals back into existence." Jonathan explained as if Sare had to be told on numerous occasions.

"Oh." Was all that Sare could say at the reply, and he continued to stare intently with the others at Tai and the mother tigerdillo.

Brak had a front row seat to everything, with Gena behind him.

"What is that on its back?" Brak asked, as he stared at what he believed to be a freak of nature.

"That is his back. In the past, animals weren't just one specific species, they were what we call now, hybrids". Gena explained, and since there was no rebuttal by Crytia or Jonathan, it must have been correct.

"So why are there no more hybrids?" Brak asked.

Lee hurried through to give Tai the small basin of hot water with a towel, and only catching the end of their conversation, decided to butt in while watching Tai's progress.

"My brother Tai and I call it redegeneration. Where nature no longer allows cross species procreation."

"Procreation?" Brak looked and sounded dumbfounded.

"Making babies." Sare spoke up.

Everyone stood silently as one cub, then two cubs, and ultimately 3 cubs were brought into the world from a panting tigerdillo mother, and an eager Tai on the receiving end. Tai and Lee both felt sort of like fathers, and couldn't wipe the proud smile from their faces. Jonathan stretched an arm out over Crytia's broad shoulders, and held her close. Crytia was so into the birth, she barely noticed the sign of affection that Jonathan was showing her.

* * *

"When you're ready to disclose the identity of the Avatar, your employees shall be returned." A text message on Yang's phone sounded.

Yang was at the bottom of the pit that Crytia had created to get Sare and Wade's body to safety, in a pool of water Yang had used to try and accelerate erosion. There just had to be some kind of telltale sign of their path, and where they were headed, but the badgermole and Crytia really did a good job covering their tracks.

Out of frustration, Yang threw his phone against the earthen sides of the pit, and it fell into the water. He swore as he picked up the phone from the knee deep pool, and with a quick hand gesture, drew the water from the phone, and began to text back.

"If I knew, I would not keep it a secret." He lied. He knew that Gena was the new Avatar, and would be the one to find their hideout, but how? And what more would he have to endure in the meantime from his superiors?

Yang felt more like a tier 3 lately. He was given everything, and one slight breath of a possible betrayal on his part to his superiors, privileges were stripped from him. He felt defeated, and with a raised straightened fist, the pool of water raised him out of the pit, and back into Brak's bedroom.

"Sir, the wolfbat sonar." Meilin introduced.

"This sir business, Meilin, you know better. Furthermore, ever since you and I have been consorting, my superiors are able to keep a close eye on me." Yang surmised upon taking the sonar from Meilin.

"Yang?" Meilin stuttered a little.

Yang heaved a heavy sigh. The thought of killing Meilin seemed like the only viable option, but being angry and depressed at the same time, may be the only thing that saved Meilin's life.

"Just go, and I want to never see you again." Yang said with a shooing gesture of his hand.

"But, Yang, sir, I…" Meilin began, stepping closer to Yang.

"You tier 3s think we owe you something. We owe you nothing. Now, leave my presence, and never let me see you again. I will not repeat myself again."

Meilin said nothing, and left the premises as Yang watched.

Yang knew what he wanted. He wanted to become a tier 1, and knew that capturing the Avatar alive was an option, practically the only option for just that. The wolfbat sonar Meilin just delivered would aid him. The two parts of the sonar equipment were a glove, and a meter with a wide touch screen.

Yang made a soft landing back into the pit, using the water to guide him down, punched an earthen side of the pit, and the sonar went wild with beeps, and a 2D map of the area.

Yang was feeling good about this idea, happy even. Then his legs began to feel heavy, he tried to shift his weight, and he just collapsed with his head just above the water.

"Oh, there you are Roan, I wondered what all that splashing was about." The man clad in all black appeared in Yang's field of vision.

Yang felt very heavy, and could barely move.

"Jin." Was all Yang could think to say while nearly in the fetal position.

"I didn't get a chance earlier to introduce you to my friend. He doesn't speak, so I do not know his name, but I like to call him, GB." Jin said in the same condescending tone.

Yang didn't speak.

"What's GB, you ask? Gravity Bender." Jin exposed.

Jin then sat on the floor with his feet dangling over the side, and made his way down into the pit next to Yang. There was barely enough room as it was with just Yang. Adding Jin just made it unbearable.

"What is this project you're working on?" Jin asked as he fumbled around with the wolfbat sonar.

Jin grabbed the device, and noticed the glove on Yang's hand. He lifted Yang's heavy right arm, and took off the glove, with no protest from Yang, only a menacing stare, and grit of teeth. Jin noticed this.

"Oh, you don't mind do you?"

Yang tried to conserve some strength, and not speak as his jowls felt heavy.

"Gravity bending is awesome. GB here can make you sluggish and collapse, or super limber and agile. Glad he's working for us. It is also a dual bending move. It is part Earth and part Airbending." Jin said before punching the wall in front of him, the same as Yang did.

The sonar's screen came alive again, showing the same map.

"Hmm, this might be just what we are looking for. Thanks, Roan."

With the help of GB's bending, Jin leapt from the pit back into the bedroom with the wolfbat sonar, and left the house.

Yang scrambled to his feet. Feeling both anger and frustration, he yelled out at the top of his lungs.

* * *

It was now the middle of the night. They had already had a funeral for Wade, and buried him several feet from the surface above headquarters. The service was bland as only Brak, Tai, and Lee knew Wade, and only Brak knew him of a personal level.

Brak couldn't sleep, and decided to go downstairs and just look around, hopefully he would get sleepy. They had given him Wade's belongings that were on his person. Sitting outside the room of statues, he went through Wade's phone. Pictures of Wade and his friends filled his pictures folder, and his contact list was fat. Brak began to thumb through a list of apps Wade had, and noticed one that was a password app for pictures. He pressed the icon, and it asked for a password.

"Oh man." Brak thought aloud.

He decided to try the usual passwords, 0000, 1111, and 9999, 0123, and 1234. When none of them worked, he knew he had to try each number starting with 0001. An hour or so passed, and he was at 0334. Then it hit him. Try the date they met. Could it be that Wade cared for him that much?

The date did work, and inside were a few pictures of him and Brak together, and a few of Brak alone. Each with comments calling Brak his boyfriend, and how much he loved him. Brak was getting emotional again, and then angry again. Yang had to pay.


	15. Chapter 15: A Law

**Chapter 15: A Law.**

Gravitybending. Yang did not even know such a thing could exist. I mean a law of the universe able to be manipulated by humans. Sure, there was the technology to defy gravity, but to manipulate? Yang kept going over it in his head. Jin had the wolfbat sonar now. There was no more he could do there. He hopped out of the pit with the help of the water beneath him. The water then evaporated and disappeared, and Yang left the premises.

Brak fell asleep with Wade's phone clutched in his hand, and was startled awake by a ring. The phone showed it was early in the morning, and the caller ID displayed, "Mom and Dad". What would he say? What could he say, to ease the grief of a parent? How could he explain any of this? Such thoughts reeled through his brain.

"Hello?" Brak said automatically.

"Wade? It's your mother." She introduced herself as all mothers would.

"I'm sorry ma'am, Wade's not here." Brak struggled to say.

"You must be the guy that he moved in with, wherever he went."

Brak didn't know what to say, so he just played along.

"Yes ma'am."

"No need to be all formal with me, call me Kasey."

"Alright, Kasey."

"So, I am guessing you are his boyfriend?"

There was a silence, but only because he was getting rid of the dry mouth associated with another bout of crying.

"It's okay, mothers know these things. Did you two have a fight?" Kasey heard the sadness in Brak's voice, and decided to pry a little.

"Yes, and no. Ma'am, there's been an accident."

Brak forced himself to swallow to combat another bout of dry mouth.

"Wade is dead." Telling himself and someone else were two totally different things. He lost it again.

"What? When? Where? What happened?"

Brak fought his way to try and explain it to Wade's mother, now hysterical.

"Wade and I fought a little, next thing I know, some madman came in and killed him. The next thing I know we are underground."

"Underground, what? You're not making any sense."

Jonathan came up to Brak, and noticed what was going on after hearing parts of the conversation. He politely took the phone from Brak.

Brak sat there against the earthen wall with his knees to his chest, trying to compose himself. He hadn't felt this way since his parents' death. The only difference is that he has not completely shut down from reality, not that he could with so many people around him, leaving him with so many questions. He really didn't care about the questions though, he just wanted out of there to face and kill Yang.

"We will be waiting for you Kasey." Jonathan said before hanging up the cell phone.

"There's nothing you could have done, Brak. Wade's mother will be topside near where we buried Wade, soon. I have convinced her no cops, but we should still be prepared for such an event."

Brak said nothing, but got up from the floor.

It was around an hour later when Wade's mother and father showed up. It was a gloomy day as the sky was livid, and barely misting. They got out of their SUV, with another person. It was a girl, and from her looks, a much younger sibling.

"Where? Where is Wade?" Kasey asked sounding worried and a little less hysterical.

Crytia was there to greet them, and point them in the direction of Brak who was standing next to Wade's grave, waiting on them.

They were almost to the site and Brak, when the mother broke down, with her face in her hands. The apparent sister stayed behind with the mother as the father stepped up to Brak.

"I take it, you are or were my son's boyfriend?"

"Yes sir."

"Danny, please. My wife and daughter, Kasey are over there."

Danny took a brief second, looking over his wife and daughter. Brak couldn't help to notice that Wade was the spitting image of his father; albeit, a little older looking.

"How did it happen, son?"

"I'm Brak."

"I still stand by what I said. If you were good enough for our Wade, you are as good as family."

Brak tried to smile, but it came out wryly.

"Have you ever heard of Bending? Or the Avatar?" Brak asked with a little uncertainty of whether he would be sounding crazy.

Danny stared at Brak for a second, and back over to his wife and daughter.

"Lyn, Baby, do the thing."

Kasey, the daughter, better known as Lyn, looked at her father a bit strangely for a moment, her gray eyes contrasting her pale complexion and lightly red, long hair. She let go of her grieving mother, and with a fist, she punched the air, and a gust of wind hit her father and Brak, but only barely.

Brak's eyes grew wide. He had seen what Yang did to Wade, and witnessed Crytia and the badgermole digging a tunnel, but all of that felt like a bad dream. This was happening while Brak was completely lucid. Brak didn't know how to react, and acted a little put off.

"Yeah, that is how Wade was taken from us. From a man named Yang Shi. He could do that too, but with ice and water."

It was Danny's turn for his eyes to widen.

"Yang Shi? The millionaire? He did this to our boy? How? Why?"

Brak decided to leave out the how, and focused completely on the why.

"I do not know why. Wade mentioned that Yang threatened him, and that he had to tell me that the Avatar stuff was real, and that our lives were in danger. That's…"

Brak swallowed.

"That's when it happened."

Another white lie, but the other details would just hurt too much, and they weren't important.

"Our son died to save you then?" Kasey spoke up clinging to her daughter. They both were up near Brak and Danny.

Brak thought for a second. Beyond his puffiness, he felt a sense of calm, yet regret, and the quest for vengeance was even more so.

"Yes. I guess so."

"Yang Shi will stop at nothing along with the government to keep bending a secret, and people like us a secret." Crytia announced stepping up to where they were in the now slightly faster misting rain.

"We would like to offer you and your family a place to stay, so they will be safe from the government and its lackeys." Crytia continued.

"No thanks. We have kept Lyn a secret, and so far, we haven't run into any complications."

"But Yang will know, if he does not already, that you are Wade's family." Lee interjected.

"I said we're fine. Thank you for taking care of our son, and burying him. I know that families rarely get to say goodbye, but just one last visit would have been nice." Danny said before losing his cool, then quickly covering it up, and walking away, with a sobbing Kasey, and supporting Lyn in tow.

Gena held onto Brak by the shoulders, and everyone watched as Wade's family climbed into their SUV. Danny did stop for a moment, and turned around.

"Is that enough proof? You got a confession." Danny said rather loudly.

Crytia and Jonathan took on the defensive with Sare a little behind the others, equally as defensive.

Jin walked out, carrying the wolfbat sensor, and an odd-looking man followed. Charcoal gray was the other man's color choice without a shirt, and a shaved head. The man stopped, spread his arms out, and lowered his entire body to the ground; everyone minus Yang and Wade's family followed suit. Each grunting at the added weight.

Trying to slink away in defiance, Jonathan started to speak to a now closer Jin in the mist turned rain.

"So you must be the benders we have heard so much about. I hear that Yang and your newest member are well acquainted. Jihone, thank the family for me, please." Jin said and commanded, halving the distance between Jihone and Gena and company.

With a slight flick of each wrist, Wade's family were either glued to their seats, or on the ground.

Yang had walked all night and most of the morning, and was nearing his office building. Drenched from the rain mixed with sweat. He saw a familiar figure leaning against the concrete building.

"I knew you would figure out it wasn't me, Yang, so I stuck around." Meilin said proudly.

"Well, don't just stand there, follow me, we have to get another wolfbat sonar."

"Already ahead of you." Meilin said, again proudly as he produced another machine.

Yang was impressed, but said nothing.

"A thank you?" Meilin suggested.

All Meilin got was a grunt from Yang.

They entered the building, took the elevator, Meilin was sent to the conference room, and Yang hit the showers he had installed as a perk for working for him to his employees. The employees were back, and saw Yang in anything but his best that day. No one said a word.

A sneeze escaped Yang.

"Great." Is all Yang said as he leaned against a shower wall with hot steamy water beating against his back.

He had another suit sent up to the showers, got dressed, and went to meet Meilin.

A loud sneeze gave Yang away to Meilin, and Meilin stopped fooling around Yang's desk, and took a seat at the table. Yang took some fast acting cold medicine, and entered the conference room.

Yang would never say it, but was glad Meilin didn't listen too well to his previous order about being fired.

Yang slammed both fists onto the table in front of Meilin, startling Meilin only a little.

"Gravitybending, Meilin. What is it? What does it consist of, and how to reproduce it?"

"Gravitybending?"

"Yes, after you left, I was ambushed by a tier 1 and a gravitybender. I was helpless, the wolfbat sonar was stolen, and he seemed to leave happy. This says to me, he found their location."

Meilin wasn't as stupid as he seemed, but he could not follow Yang's story, nor did any ideas come to mind.

"Interview everyone, and weed out any weak links. I want no one working for me that is not trustworthy. Then I will make an official announcement. This will not happen again!" Yang said inspiringly yet heated after continuously wiping his nose.

"Yes, Yang." Meilin said before exiting the room.

"Well now, we have traitors of the government, and sellouts." Jin pointed at Gena and company and Wade's family respectively with a big grin on his face.

"What, are you doing to us?" Jonathan cried out, still trying to free himself.

Jin turned from Jonathan and began to pace.

"You know how each element has three ways to be bent? Well, this marvelous tier 3 soldier figured out a way to bend two elements simultaneously, but in different ways. I like to call it, gravitybending. Earth and Airbending used in tandem. Isn't it beautiful? This weapon on our side."

Jin still paced, stopping just short of a calm-looking Jihone, then turning to face Gena and company.

"Now, enough talking, I just thought it was respectful to tell you what will be the instrument of your death. You, Avatar, come here. You aren't going to die. You have to be kept alive." Jin finished.

Gena felt like there was some magnetic force that slid her from her spot near Brak towards Jihone and through her companions as if she were caught in a landslide. She stopped just short of reaching Jin and Jihone.

"Now, we cannot have you running around with abilities starting some kind of mass revolution. Jihone, end it!"

Jihone raised, opening his once closed eyes pulling, then pushing his open-palmed hands together. Every inch closer, the grunts of immobility became cries of pain and torture. Gena was turned to face her friends, and saw them as their skin began to crack and redden from the pressure.

"Avatar, you should have just remained ignorant, like your predecessors. The world is better off in our con…" Jin started, but suddenly had no breath to speak another syllable.

Her friends gasping for air, and sighs of relief filled the air from both ends of the field. Jin and Jihone stood straight up, their feet only inches above the ground where their toes pointed. Choking sounds were heard from both. Gena's eyes were glowing, and her hypnotizing movements with her hands suggested she was waterbending and they were drowning. It was apparent then that it had stopped raining, and all water from the sky draped motionlessly in midair, surrounding the two antagonists. Soon, the two collapsed from asphyxia, and laid on the ground, only slightly breathing.

Gena's eyes stopped glowing, and she too collapsed as a pile of rags onto the damp ground as it began to rain again.

**Author's Notes****:** Another chapter I wrote while being very sleepy and am proud of. I knew the heroes couldn't kill if the bad guys were, and I know my violence had to be kept to a minimum with very little to no gore, but I am fine with that. I didn't want to kill anyone off, so I didn't, and am glad. This chapter turned out so good in my opinion. What do you all think?


	16. Chapter 16: Fire and Earth

**Chapter 16: Fire and Earth**

Crytia was impressed. Sasha, the badgermole finished her earth prison with Jin and Jihone laying on the floor, still unconscious. The prison was made of some metallic substance she had never seen. Truly, Sasha was an excellent bender to refine earth to a metal using only her bending. Crytia went over to sample her friend's work. It felt like metal, she tried to bend the prison, to no avail. She wasn't a metalbender, but she thought she would get some kind of vibe from it, but nothing.

"Thanks old friend. Maybe one day, you could teach me to do that." Crytia said to Sasha.

The badgermole nodded its head, and left through a hole she dug next to the prison.

* * *

"I'm sorry for earlier. He left us no choice." Wade's father told Jonathan.

"I understand, and I am sure the others will too." Jonathan explained.

Brak and Jonathan were with Danny, away from the SUV while Kasey and Lyn remained inside.

"Are you going to stay? I couldn't help Wade before because of my ignorance, but I will avenge him, and would die to protect you and your family." Brak said, sounding a bit chivalrous.

The three stood in a semi-circle with only Brak attempting to make eye contact.

"While it is unnecessary to go to such lengths because the threat is gone…" Danny started.

"The threat is the government, and one of our greatest threats is Yang Shi. The threat is far from gone Danny." Jonathan interrupted and explained.

"One man isn't the government. You people need to realize that there are no conspiracies, but bad people in the world that do bad things in the name of some cause. My daughter is abnormal. She needs a cure, like those men who attacked us, and probably my son too." Danny said, not looking them in the eye.

Brak couldn't believe what he just heard. The man who seemed to love his son so much, who seemed so complacent, grief-struck, and whose life Gena just saved; he would just turn his back on them with an insult as a parting gift, not just to them, but to Wade too. Brak was angry. He felt he loved his son more than he did. He felt he cared more for his boyfriend's family's safety more than he did. Brak's anger was getting the best of him.

"I used to be just in the dark like you, but now I know the truth, watching your son die in front of my eyes. I may have been ignorant in the past, but you have seen the truth, and you are just…"

Jonathan interrupted Brak with a hand on his trembling shoulders, silencing him, and Brak just turned away, trying to cover up his tears of anger.

"I think it is best that we just part ways Danny."

Danny said nothing, and walked away, still holding his beliefs strongly in his heart.

Jonathan turned toward Brak, and placed his hands on his shoulder in a light embrace.

"Some people, we just cannot save, and no amount of evidence can convince them otherwise. That is the one of the hardest parts of our job. Not to mention watching a loved one die."

Brak gently shrugged Jonathan off his shoulders, and walked over to Wade's grave, leaving a saddened Jonathan in his wake.

* * *

"Gena, what was that? It was totally awesome. First we were all about to die from the gravitybender, and then you turned into such a bad ass, and finished them off." Sare said while mimicking some of her motions from earlier.

"Raava. Are we already bonded? How did I do such things?" Gena said aloud.

This immediately shut Sare up. He couldn't believe he wasn't considering her feelings. She was already confused, and not liking the change of life. It was all so exciting though.

"I'm glad that I was able to stop those guys, but why? I am not bonded with Raava." Gena said to Sare.

"We have to get to the South Pole Sare. We should leave in the morning." She continued.

Sare only nodded. Without any more words, Gena left to go be beside Brak.

"Hey." She greeted Brak.

Brak turned around. "Oh, hi, Gena."

"Is it true the government is behind all of this? Keeping all of this…bending…under wraps? Killing those with the knowledge?" Brak asked, keeping his eyes on Wade's grave.

"Am I one of you?"

"We do know that Yang is a part of the government, and he's already killed at least one person we know of."

"Wade." Brak spoke.

Gena nodded, and remembered David, but decided against bringing him up.

"There are 5 tiers to society, and the 3rd tier is filled with the people who are benders and know the truth, but work for the government and have no real power over anything. So, no, I do not think everyone is killed. You aren't dead."

"So I am one of you?" Brak finally turned to face Gena and asked.

"It would seem so. Ask Jonathan or Crytia, they seem to know more about you than I would."

Brak pointed out Jonathan.

"Yeah, him." Gena replied, assuming he was asking if the man was Jonathan.

* * *

Gena and Sare left Brak and Jonathan to go underground to see Crytia, and to leave the others alone.

"So, you know about me?" Brak bluntly asked when he was only a few feet away from Jonathan.

Jonathan turned around only to see a puffy-eyed Brak with his jet black hair in a disarray.

"We thought you were the Avatar when you were younger, because the next Avatar would be an earthbender, and your eyes held the glint of an earthbender."

Some of the first things Brak thought about was that the society knew of everything, and never tried to contact him, or help anything. He felt betrayed.

"After the accident. You were in the hospital. The nurses told us that you didn't remember anything about the wreck. It was a mess. We couldn't risk doing further damage to you mentally." Jonathan tried to explain, as if able to read Brak's mind.

"I had a simple sprained ankle though." Brak retorted, and tried to remember when and where he got the sprained ankle.

"You were in the car with them. You only escaped because you firebent. Which in itself is astonishing as you have green eyes." Jonathan barely finished.

"I what? Don't you think I would remember this?"

"Not if you repressed your memories as the nurses suggested. After all of that, we just kept a close eye on you."

"So where was the help all these years as I was struggling, and barely making it?" Brak was nearly in Jonathan's face about this, heated from all the confusion of recent events.

"Three years ago, the bank was about to foreclose on your house, and suddenly changed their mind, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

Jonathan nodded, and it took Brak a minute to realize that they had made the payment to keep them from foreclosing. Brak then stepped away, looking at the ground.

"Thank you. But wouldn't it have been easier to tell me all of this?" Brak already knew the answer, but just had to hear it for himself.

"Would you have believed any of us?"

"I guess not. I would have hated you."

Jonathan paused for a second.

"So, will you stay with us? I know you want revenge, and no one will try to stop you, but we would rather you with us." Jonathan offered.

Given the recent events, and knowing that on some level, he would be close to Wade, he chose to stay.

"We know you can firebend, but if you can earthbend too, Crytia is a master earthbender."

"I will take this a little slowly. I believe in this now, but jumping right in, no way."

"I understand, no rush."

Jonathan put an arm around Brak, and led him to the earthen staircase that Crytia created which led to the headquarters.

* * *

Gena and Sare went to check in on their prisoners while Brak and Jonathan were still topside talking. Crytia was still near the prison, which only accessible by an earthbender behind the wall between the two staircases leading to the rooms. Jin and Jihone were still passed out.

Gena checked out the cell's metal.

"Wow, has this always been here, Crytia?" Sare asked while Gena was still looking it all over, thoroughly impressed.

"No. Sasha, the badgermole made it." Crytia answered still with an impressed tone.

Gena stopped to look at Crytia with widened eyes.

"Wow." Sare was the first to say.

"This is really impressive, but what keeps them from attacking us when they come to?" Gena finally spoke up, looking back at the cell and its inhabitants.

"I am not too sure. When you bend, you get a vibration from something, you feel it as if it were alive, but I felt nothing. As if these bars stops bending." Crytia said while feeling the strange metal.

It was Sare's turn to have wide eyes.

"Let's give it a go with water."

Sare discovered a pouch on the boat while him and Gena were riding back to save Brak and Wade. He then started to wear it, and kept water in it. He was instantly reminded that he had to talk to Jonathan about the pouch.

He summoned the water like a pro from the oblong pouch after uncorking the top, and threw it at the cell. The water fell to the floor upon reaching the bars, and some splashed in the gravitybender's face. Even though the gravitybender never spoke, he grunted, and shifted some. He realized what happened, and went into a violent rage which looked like a temper tantrum of bending.

Nothing happened.

He tried again.

Nothing happened, and he began to look worried, looking around at the faces of his captors. He then began to freak out in his own way, banging on the metal bars, the earthen walls, and even accidentally kicked Jin back to being conscious. Then there were two of them in the cell acting up as Jin also tried to get out with his earthbending. Sadly to them, to no avail.

"He must have been a prisoner for a long time." Gena offered.

"Hmm?" Crytia made a noise.

"His eyes, and the sweat on the gravitybender's forehead. I know the look all too well. He has been captive before."

"Maybe he's just claustrophobic?" Sare asked.

"I don't think so. His eyes look humane, and genuinely scared, as if pleading with us." Gena further explained.

"Well, no sympathy from me. He's dangerous, not to mention, his bending hurts." Crytia said aloud.

Gena and Sare looked at her, trying to ignore Jin's ranting and cursing.

Crytia turned to Gena.

"Thank you again for saving us up there. If it were not for you and Raava. I do not know what would've happened."

Gena looked down at the ground. By then, Jin and Jihone had calmed down, giving up.

"That's the thing. Raava and I aren't bonded yet, I do not know what happened. I hope to find out soon."

"You and Sare going back to the South Pole?" Crytia asked.

"That's the plan, but we will head out tomorrow."

"Maybe Brak could go with you." Jonathan and Brak came upon the others at the cell.

"Oh great, a happy frickin' reunion." Jin remarked upon seeing them all there.

"But wait, I don't see my informant." Jin added.

"The delusional coward left." Brak said, barely stepping into the newly made room.

A slight rumble, and Sasha's head poked out of the wall beside the cell. Brak jumped back from fright, and in return, Sasha licked him on his cheek. Crytia chuckled.

"Sasha's on our side, Brak. No need to be frightened." Crytia explained.

Brak stepped closer to Sasha, and patted the side of its head with a trembling hand. Sasha closed its eyes as if affirming delight.

Brak stopped, and Sasha disappeared back into the wall, and took the prison down a level through a gaping hole it created.

"Thanks Sasha." Crytia shouted out.

"Where am I going, and with who?" Brak asked curiously, but in a lighter mood.

Gena decided to explain everything about her experiences, and a little of the past lives of the Avatar with Sare and Jonathan adding to her story at certain times.

Meanwhile, Crytia had an idea and stomped the ground. She was a pulse seer. She saw everyone around her, saw Tai and Lee tending to the animals, she saw Sasha, and saw two people walking topside along the side of the road with cars passing them. It was Kasey and Lyn.

Crytia decided to act fast, by calling out to Sasha with a few rhythmic beats of her feet. Sasha came up from the ground below their feet. Gena and the others looked over, saw the badgermole, and continued to talk.

"Would you please divide the cells below so that Jin and Jihone are in a separate cell, and make another cell? I think we have more company that might need a cell."

Sasha grunted.

"I know it is hard work, but I wouldn't be asking if it weren't important."

Sasha grunted again.

"Okay, I'll pamper you later."

Sasha gave her look of approval again, and dove back down below to get started.

Crytia rushed past the others.

"Jonathan, we have company, topside."

Jonathan quickly followed, and the others looked at each other, and ran after them to catch up.

Crytia bent her hands at the wrists, punched forward, spread wide, and brought her hands to the ground to create an earthen staircase leading to the top after making sure the coast was clear. They all climbed the stairs with Crytia taking the lead while Ty and Lee stayed behind taking care of the tigerdillo cubs, and the other tending to the rest of the animals. Brak seemed amazed at how handy bending was, and how much you could accomplish. It would be so easy to be a bad guy, but he also felt it would be so great to be able to help others like him in the same manner.

Crytia got to the surface, and saw the two walking just past the entrance she just made.

"Hey!" Crytia shouted to them.

Kasey and Lyn turned around. Lyn was taking up the rear, and didn't look forward at all. They met up, both of them looking worse for wear.

"Why are you two heading this way? We saw you three leaving in the SUV that way." Jonathan interrogated, pointing in the opposite direction they were facing.

"You all hear something?" Brak said looking around.

All but Sare didn't say anything, and he was looking around too, and shrugged his shoulders.

"We were scared from his words." Kasey started, swallowed form being out of breath, breathing heavy, and pointed to Jonathan.

"What is that noise?" Brak said again.

Sare only shrugged again, and Gena looked around not hearing or seeing anything.

"Nothing Brak." She said.

Crytia and Jonathan were too busy listening and talking to Kasey.

"My husband and I had a fight. I was inclined to agree with you, and he was stubborn as always. Not willing to believe anything. So, I took Lyn, and we left." Kasey said with unwavering confidence.

"It's like a heartbeat. It just skipped a beat, and is now beating faster." Sare added.

Crytia and Jonathan looked back at Brak, noticing what he said that time, and looked back at Kasey with determined eyes.

"She's lying." They said in tandem.

"Wait, what?"

"You are indeed an earthbender, Brak. You were able to tell that she was lying." Jonathan said aloud to Brak.

"What? I never did anything like that before."

"You never accepted this bit of reality before either. You've had instances where you used your abilities, you just never noticed them as abilities and shrugged them off." Jonathan explained further.

Crytia took a stance, and captured the two in a ring of earth.

"Well, I heard two heart beats. The other was beating fast the whole time as if it belonged to someone scared." Brak continued.

"That was Lyn. She wants no part of this, it's in her facial expression." Gena said aloud, looking at the downtrodden Lyn.

"You wackos stay away from my Lyn! She's my daughter, I will not have you idiots filling her head with nonsense!" Kasey screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Danny!" Kasey shouted after a big breath.

Nothing happened, no one came.

Crytia stomped her foot to the ground, and saw no car or SUV or anyone walking.

"You know where our hideout is. We cannot let you go back." Gena told Kasey.

"You will let me go." Kasey said, but not as loud, almost like a plea.

With a few extra movements, Crytia separated Kasey and Lyn.

"What are you doing? Stop! She's crying, you're upsetting her!" Kasey continued.

Lyn was indeed crying. She had never been away from her mother. Crytia let a wall of other collapse back into the ground, letting Lyn go free.

"Go baby! Go get your father!" Kasey tried as a last effort.

"Your daughter will choose what she wants to do, but she cannot leave. She will either stay here among us, and hone her abilities, or stay in prison with you." Jonathan explained, agreeing with Gena about knowing where their hideout was.

"You cannot do this! She's done nothing to you!" Kasey continued to shout, and eventually broke down.

"You may think we're wackos, but the truth is, bending exists, and no one knows about it. Why is that?" Sare butted in.

"Because it should not exist. Wars, famine, and control come from bending."

"The same with the government, ma'am." Jonathan retorted.

"I will not sit here and be brainwashed. Keep me in prison, but bring my daughter to me."

"Yang Shi, a government official, killed your son. Skewered him with an ice pick that he created, and until they saved me, I almost met the same fate!" Brak walked up and yelled at Kasey.

"Pity." She said in a monotone voice and spat at Brak.

"What do you wish to do, Lyn?" Jonathan looked at her sympathetically, and asked.

"I want to stay with you." Lyn answered in a small voice.

"No skips." Brak turned around and said with a smile.

* * *

Danny sped away in the SUV, in the same direction Kasey and Lyn walked off in. Yang was at the same convenience store as Danny, and watched.

Yang summoned spikes of ice to rise from the wet pavement to pierce the tires. The vehicle came to a slow stop, and Yang ran to the driver side.

"I know you, you work for me." Yang said when he approached Danny who was out to check his tires.

Danny turned to face Yang. Noticing him, he cursed at Yang, and went to punch him in the face, and was stopped dead as a jousting rod of ice was held to his throat, with yang holding the hilt.

"Oh, that boy was your son." Yang said with a patronizing tone.

"No more blood from your family tree needs to be spilt." Yang continued.

"What a stroke of luck it was that I was at that store. You are going to tell me everything. From why you were speeding off, and what Jin was having you do after he stole you from me and kept you." Yang ended with menacing eyes.

* * *

**Author's Note****:** It took 3 or 4 days to write this chapter, but I am pleased at the pace the story is going. I wanted some things to go a little differently, but all the pieces fell into place. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter.


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